Harvard Establishes CAM Institute
BOSTON--In late April, Harvard Medical School established the
Osher Institute for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative
Medical Therapies. Recently, Harvard also added the Division for Research and
Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. A $10 million gift
from the Bernard Osher Foundation, based in San Francisco, and a $2 million
contribution from Harvard Medical School are funding the new institute.
According to the school, the Institute was created to bring together
cross-disciplines to rigorously evaluate complementary and integrative
therapies. In particular, researchers will test the safety, efficacy, mechanisms
of action and cost-effectiveness of these treatments.
We need to evaluate scientifically the effectiveness of these techniques,
to assess the current status of our knowledge and to determine what we need to
do to advance that knowledge, said Joseph Martin, dean of Harvard Medical
School.
David Eisenberg, an associate professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, a hospital affiliated with Harvard, will direct both the Division and
Institute. My hope is that when five or 10 universities have sustainable
[means for funding] research, education and responsible patient care in this
area, we will forget the terms alternative and complementary
altogether and simply provide the best available medicine, Eisenberg stated.
According to the Bernard Osher Foundation, its mission is to improve the
quality of peoples lives. In 1998, the foundation gave $10 million to the
University of California, San Francisco, to develop the Osher Center for
Integrative Medicine. For more information, visit www.hms.harvard.edu.