News Release

NIH-Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to host town meeting on complementary and alternative medicine

Meeting Announcement

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Town Meeting on Complementary and Alternative Medicine National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NIH - Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Sponsor Public Forum on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

WHAT: The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are hosting a town meeting on complementary and alternative medicine. National and local medical experts will speak on current developments in complementary and alternative medicine research at the local, regional and national levels as well as at the National Institutes of Health.

The event is free and will include an extensive question and answer session.

WHO: The speakers include Stephen E. Straus, M.D., director, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and David M. Eisenberg, M.D., director of the Center for Alternative Medicine Research and Education, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Experts in three complementary and alternative medicine disciplines, acupuncture, massage therapy, and chiropractic, will also speak.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 15, 2:00-5:00 p.m. (town meeting) A press conference will follow at 5:15 p.m.

WHERE: Boston Marriott Copley Place, Grand Ballroom, 110 Huntington Avenue, Boston

WHY: A growing number of Americans are using complementary and alternative medicine. A 1998 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association by David Eisenberg and his colleagues documented that 4 out of 10 Americans used complementary and alternative medicine therapies in 1997. In addition, the total number of visits to alternative medicine practitioners increased 50 percent from 1990 to 1997, to 629 million visits per year.

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