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BWH will take a leading role in the emerging field of integrative medicine, thanks to a $5 million gift from the Bernard Osher Foundation. With this gift, BWH will establish the Osher Integrative Care Center at 850 Boylston St. This outpatient facility, scheduled to open in 2007, will offer complementary and integrative medical therapies, such as chiropractic, acupuncture, meditation and movement therapies in combination with conventional medical expertise.
“Patients want advice about the use or avoidance of complementary and alternative therapies,” said David Eisenberg, MD, director of the Osher Institute at Harvard Medical School’s Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, who also will supervise the new center at BWH. “In addition, they ideally want these therapies to be safely assessed through their conventional medical system in full view of their physicians.”
The Department of Medicine’s Program in Integrative Medicine will oversee the center, which will be staffed by trained physicians and licensed complementary health professionals, including rheumatologists, orthopedists, neurologists, internists, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage, physical and occupational therapists.
One of the center’s challenges is to design and test new models of care that combine the best of conventional and complementary medical therapies in order to provide patient-centered, evidence-based, comprehensive care. At the outset, the center will focus on treating musculoskeletal and pain-related conditions.
“This extraordinary gift will advance our ability to evaluate and refine the effectiveness of current therapies by applying what we learn from our patients to our research efforts,” BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, said.