Harvard Creates New Holistic Medical Program

Harvard Medical School, acknowledging that more and more patients are receiving complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments, is creating an institute for non-traditional medicine. Harvard researchers say they plan to examine the effectiveness of such treatments as chiropractic, acupuncture, herbal therapies, and massage, and will look at how they work or interact with traditional medicine. Harvard calls its program integrative medicine, for the combination of alternative and mainstream treatments. Americans make an estimated 600 million office visits to practitioners of integrative medicine each year and spend $30 billion on treatments, according to a recent Harvard study.

The program, established with a $10 million gift from San Francisco philanthropist Bernard Osher and $2 million from the school, will work in conjunction with a similar one at the University of California at San Francisco.