Yale Bulletin and Calendar

December 15, 2006|Volume 35, Number 13|Four-Week Issue

Yale School of Medicine
joins national consortium

The School of Medicine has been elected to the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, which integrates conventional medical practices with complementary/alternative methods.

The consortium is a group of highly esteemed academic medical centers with research, educational and clinical interests in integrative medicine. Its mission is to "help transform medicine and health care through rigorous scientific studies, new models of clinical care and innovative educational programs that integrate biomedicine, the complexity of human beings, the intrinsic nature of healing and the rich diversity of therapeutic systems."

"I am delighted that Yale is joining this group, and very proud to join with colleagues in representing us," says Dr. David Katz, director of Yale's Prevention Research Center and associate professor (adjunct) of public health, who will direct Yale's membership to the consortium. "Patient demand for alternative therapies forces us to consider them, but we must, of course, be responsible about evidence-based practice. Integrative medicine is an evolving field committed to the artful balance of responsiveness and responsibility."

By appointing representatives to working groups focusing on clinical care, education, research and policy, Yale will collaborate with national leaders in these respective areas of integrative medicine. Yale's membership in the consortium is an opportunity to affect the direction, assumptions and outcomes of integrative medicine and health care in general, notes Katz.

The Yale Prevention Research Center is housed at Griffin Hospital in Derby, where Katz has been the principal investigator of numerous clinical trials in complementary and alternative medicine. Katz also founded and directs the affiliated Integrative Medicine Center that provides evidence-based, holistic care in a novel clinical setting incorporating conventional and naturopathic physicians. The Integrative Medicine Center co-sponsors one of the nation's few residency training programs in integrative medicine for naturopathic physicians and has spawned one postdoctoral fellowship in complementary medicine research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Gift from alumni to expand Grand Strategy Program

State gives Yale $7.8 million for stem cell research

Environmental activist named Marshall Scholar

Yale scientist helps keep museum's trains chugging along

Project will consider how to develop 'pastoral imagination'

Human Resources department to pilot STARS . . .

Yale researchers share expertise with Ethiopian health care . . .

Global Citizenship Initiative awarded Hewlett Foundation grant

Child psychiatrist wins award for contributions to education

Alan Kazdin named president of American Psychological Association

Thomas Steitz honored by Japanese university

The Duke's Men make holiday appearances

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE NEWS

HIV testing should be a routine part of health exams, say scientists

Discovery has implications for treatment of herpes

Study: Cancer gene mutations more common than expected

Aortic aneurysms often run in families, say researchers

Study: Decreased genital sensation likely in competitive women cyclists

Retinopathy of prematurity may be due to genetic factors

Research shows benefits of exercise programs for elderly

Asian Indian men found to be more susceptible to diabetes

Yale School of Medicine joins national consortium