Friday, October 07, 2005
David M. Eisenberg to present Corcoran Lecture on integrative medicine
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Harvard Medical School professor David M. Eisenberg, M.D. will address current issues relating to integrative medicine on Tuesday, October 25, at the University of Southern Indiana. These complementary approaches, such as herbal remedies, acupuncture, massage, meditation, chiropractic, and others, represent a $40 billion annual “invisible mainstream” existing within the U.S. health care system. Eisenberg, Bernard Oshner Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of its Oshner Institute and the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, will be on USI’s campus as keynote speaker for the Indiana University School of Medicine-Evansville’s annual Patrick J.V. and Margaret B. Corcoran Lecture. The Evansville campus of the IU School of Medicine is located at USI. Eisenberg will speak at three sessions for specific audiences on the following topics: • “Complementary and Integrative Medicine in the USA: Current Trends and Future Opportunities” following an 11:30 a.m. invitation-only luncheon in Carter Hall in the University Center. • “How to Advise Patients about the Use or Avoidance of Complementary and Alternative Therapies” at a lecture for health professionals and medical students at 2:30 p.m. in the Health Professions Center. • “Integrative Medicine: A Disruptive Innovation?” at a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. in Mitchell Auditorium in the Health Professions Center. After talking to a number of patients, Eisenberg was amazed to learn that a third of his patients were involved in alternative therapies. “He wondered how to advise patients as to whether or not they should pursue these alternative medicines or therapies, so he got involved in how you integrate Western medicine with Eastern medicine, and the value of this complementary medicine, which is not traditionally practiced in the West,” said John Schaeffer, associate professor of physiology and biophysics. In his public lecture, Eisenberg will discuss some success stories relative to the integration of Western and alternative complementary medicines, and how that ultimately is proving to be a somewhat disruptive innovation. “There is notion that it you are going to innovate it has to be disruptive,” Schaeffer said, “because to change the standard way of doing things causes people to be irritated; there is resistance to change. “He is pushing for an integrated approach to medicine, continuing the notion of science-based rational application of therapies on the one hand, and then complementing those with therapies that appear by word of mouth to work, but have relatively little scientific support, either because they are not readily amenable to scientific exploration, or no one has undertaken to do it.” Eisenberg has authored numerous articles on complementary and integrative medical therapies. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, he completed fellowship training in general medicine and primary care and is board certified in internal medicine. In 1979, Eisenberg served as the first U.S. medical exchange student to the People’s Republic of China, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1993, he was medical advisor to the PBS Series, “Healing and the Mind” with Bill Moyers. Recently, Eisenberg served as advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federation of State Medical Boards in regard to complementary and alternative medicine research, education, and policy. IU School of Medicine-Evansville sponsors the annual Corcoran Lecture in memory of its founding director, the late Patrick J.V. Corcoran, M.D., and his wife, Margaret B. Corcoran, a nurse, who established an endowment gift to provide medical lectures to the Evansville community and scholarships to area medical students. Corcoran was a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and assistant dean from 1971 to 1983. For more information, contact Schaeffer or Pamela G. Hinkebein, director of development for the Evansville campus, at 812/464-1831. |
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