LEGAL PROGRAM More information>

For the last four years the legal program led by Attorney Michael Cohen has been conducting analyses of the legal, regulatory, policy, and ethical issues underpinning the integration of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) therapies into conventional medical settings. The current focus is on:

• credentialing and licensure
• scope of practice
• malpractice liability
• food and drug law
• professional discipline
• third-party reimbursement rules
• rules governing health care fraud

ASIAN MEDICINE AND HEALING PROGRAM More information>

This program, led by faculty members Ted Kaptchuk and Jongbae Park, convenes groups of experts from the medical, biological, physical, social and behavioral sciences, and the humanities periodically at the Osher Research Center. Current goals of this program are:

• determining physiological, psychological, and phenomenological mechanisms underlying Asian medicine
• developing new, effective and safe treatments derived from Asian modalities for common medical conditions such as chronic pain, breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and depression
• building rigorous multi-disciplinary conceptual frameworks to better understand Asian medical therapies

ACUPUNCTURE RESEARCH COLLABORATION WITH NESA More information>

This collaboration with the New England School of Acupuncture brings together leaders from the oriental medicine and conventional medicine communities to critically evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture, and develop sound methodologies and feasible study designs required for acupuncture research. An NIH grant led by NESA's Peter Wayne and Osher faculty member, Julie Buring, strengthens and builds upon relationships between NESA, the Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center, and two other HMS-affiliated institutions, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION FOR RESEARCH IN BOTANICALS

Led by investigators from the Harvard Medical School (US), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK; China) and Keio University (Japan) the purpose of this initiative is to systematically evaluate traditionally used East Asian (Chinese and Japanese) botanicals for their anti-disease properties. Co-investigators are currently developing the core capacity to identify, procure, authenticate, extract, fractionate and test candidate botanicals both singly and in combination for activity relating to human biology. Based on their traditional use, a number of botanicals have already been evaluated in standard and unique bioassays in use in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Boston, and the NIH. One of our overall objectives is to demonstrate that the synergistic and additive nature of botanical medicines is critical to their therapeutic use.

For additional information on our botanical research programs, please contact Robert Scholten