Director, Complementary Specialties

Associate Professor of Medicine

Ted J. Kaptchuk is one of the few individuals who manages to comfortably straddle both the alternative and conventional medical worlds. He is a graduate of the Macao Institute of Chinese Medicine, in Macao, China and is an acknowledged scholar of East Asian medicine. His Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine is a classic in the field. He is also considered an expert in many other forms of alternative medicine. For the last ten years, his research interests have shifted to placebo studies and he has led numerous NIH-funded clinical, basic science, social science, historical, methodological and ethical investigations of placebo effects. He recently completed a four-year service as an expert panelist of the FDA and is currently serving his second four-year term on the National Advisory Council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), NIH. He has authored over 100 articles in such journals as Lancet, British Medical Journal, Journal of Neuroscience, Annals of Internal Medicine, NeuroImage, Pain, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Bulletin for the History of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology and International Journal of Epidemiology. Ted J. Kaptchuk is one of the few individuals who manages to comfortably straddle both the alternative and conventional medical worlds. His original education took place at a school in Macao, China and he is an acknowledged scholar in East Asian medicine. He is also considered an expert in many other forms of alternative medicine. For the last ten years, his research interests have shifted to placebo studies and he has led numerous NIH-funded clinical, basic science, social science, historical, methodological and ethical investigations of placebo effects. He recently completed a four year service as an expert panelist of the FDA and is currently serving his second four year term on the National Advisory Council of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), NIH. He has authored over 100 articles in such journals as Lancet, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Bulletin for the History of Medicine and Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.