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 people's 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.