The Medical Experts at EFMA/AFMA

Meet our medical experts at Americans and Europeans for Medical Advancement

Americans and Europeans For Medical Advancement (AFMA/EFMA) is the leading medical Board in its field which opposes the use of animals as claimed predictive models of human patients. AFMA/EFMA is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes biomedical research and the practice of medicine based on critical thinking and current understanding of evolutionary and developmental biology, complex systems, genomics, and science in general. AFMA/EFMA’s position on the use of animals in science is summarised in Trans-Species Modeling Theory.

EFMA/AFMA’s president Dr Ray Greek has co-authored a seminal work with the late, acclaimed Niall Shanks PhD, titled Animal Models in Light of Evolution, which discusses the empirical evidence behind AFMA/EFMA’s position, placing this into the context of evolution, complex systems and the philosophy of science.

Dr Greek states:

“Our position and book are based on evolution, which was Niall Shanks’ specialty. He wrote the definitive refutation of intelligent design: God, the Devil, and Darwin (forward by Richard Dawkins) and spoke and debated publicly on creationism and the creation movement.”

Meet the Board at EFMA/AFMA:

Ray Greek, MD President and Co-founder; complete CV here.
Ray Greek, MD is board certified in anesthesiology and has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.  During the course of his medical career, he performed experiments on animals and conducted clinical research. In addition to being published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, Dr. Greek is the author, along with his wife, Jean Swingle Greek, DVM, of three popular science books on the topic of attempting to extrapolate the results of animal experiments to humans. His most recent books include Animal Models in Light of Evolution, written for scientists or people with a strong background in science, and FAQs About the Use of Animals in Science: A handbook for the scientifically perplexed, written for the nonscientist.

Jean Greek, DVM
 Vice-president and Co-founder
Dr. Jean Greek is board-certified in veterinary dermatology, taught at the University of Missouri School of Veterinary Medicine, and has published in the scientific and lay literature.

Mark Rice, MD 
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Mark Rice is on staff at the University of Florida in the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Rice has performed research on animals and with humans, and has been involved with research on both academic and private levels. His clinical and research interests include liver transplantation and noninvasive blood analysis. He is the founder of a national pharmaceutical distributor and has seven U.S. patents.

Lawrence Hansen,  MD
Dr. Lawrence Hansen is Professor of Pathology and Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He has authored over a hundred papers. His research interests include dementia.

The following list denotes the most current scientific writings on AFMA/EFMA’s position.

These are articles published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, but in our opinion many are accessible for the non-scientist or lay person too! AFMA/EFMA strongly suggest that scientists who want to understand this topic read at least the first 18 on the list in addition to the book Animal Models in Light of Evolution (2009) Shanks PhD and Greek MD.

  1. Greek, R. 2014. Letter to the editor. Theoretical Biology and Medical Ethics.. DOI 10.1007/s11017-014-9305-5. Submitted version can be read here.
  2. Greek, R. (2014) The Ethical Implications for Humans in Light of the Poor Predictive Value of Animal Models. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 5, 966-1005. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2014.516129.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ijcm.2014.516129
  3. Greek, R and LA Hansen. (2013) Questions regarding the predictive value of one evolved complex adaptive system for a second: Exemplified by the SOD1 mouse. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
  4. Greek, R and LA Hansen. (2013) The Strengths and Limits of Animal Models as Illustrated by the Discovery and Development of Antibacterials. Biological Systems: Open Access 2:109. doi: 10.4172/BSO.1000109
  5. Jones, R., & Greek, R. (2013). A Review of the Institute of Medicine’s Analysis of using Chimpanzees in Biomedical Research. Science and Engineering Ethics, 1-24, doi:10.1007/s11948-013-9442-7.
  6. Greek R, Menache A. Systematic Reviews of Animal Models: Methodology versus Epistemology. Int J Med Sci 2013; 10(3):206-221. doi:10.7150/ijms.5529
  7. Ray Greek and Lawrence A Hansen. The Development of Deep Brain Stimulation for Movement Disorders J Clinic Res Bioeth 2012, 3:137. doi: 10.4172/2155-9627.1000137
  8. Greek, R. Book Review. Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing. Animals. 2012, 2(4), 559-563; doi:10.3390/ani2040559
  9. Greek, R and Mark J Rice. Animal models and conserved processes. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 2012, 9:40 doi:10.1186/1742-4682-9-40
  10. Greek, R. Pippus, A. Hansen, L. The Nuremberg Code subverts human health and safety by requiring animal modeling. BMC Medical Ethics 2012 Jul 8;13(1):16. doi:10.1186/1472-6939-13-16
  11. Greek, R. Animal Models and the Development of an HIV Vaccine. J AIDS Clinic Res 2012, S8. doi: 10.4172/2155-6113.S8-001
  12. Greek, R. Menache, A. Rice M. Animal models in an age of personalized medicine. Personalized Medicine. January 2012, Vol. 9, No. 1, Pages 47-64, DOI 10.2217/pme.11.89 (doi:10.2217/pme.11.89)
  13. Greek R, Hansen LA, Menache A. An analysis of the Bateson Review of research using nonhuman primates. Medicolegal and Bioethics 2011;1(1):3-22. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/MBS25938
  14. Greek, Ray. Patients Are Not Rodents Writ Large. American Journal of the Medical Sciences. 2011;342(4):345.
  15. Greek, Ray, Niall Shanks, and Mark J Rice. The History and Implications of Testing Thalidomide on Animals. The Journal of Philosophy, Science & Law. Volume 11, October 3, 2011.
  16. Greek, Ray and Niall Shanks. Complex systems, evolution, and animal models. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 2011 Dec;42(4):542-4 doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.07.001  PMID: 22035727
  17. Greek, R and Greek, J. Is the use of sentient animals in basic research justifiable? Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2010, 5:14.
  18. Shanks N, Greek R, Greek J. Are animal models predictive for humans? Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2009 Jan 15;4(1):2.
  19. Greek J, Greek R. Thoughts on the benefits of personalized medicine. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2009 Jan 1;234(1):40.
  20. Shanks, N. and Greek, R. Experimental use of nonhuman primates is not a simple problem. Nature Medicine. October 2008;14(10):807-8.
  21. Greek, R. Letter to Editor. American Scientist January-February 2008:96(1):4.
  22. Rice, M.J., The institutional review board is an impediment to human research: the result is more animal-based research. Philosophy, ethics, and humanities in medicine : PEHM, 2011. 6: p. 12.