Duke University was one of the founding members of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, a collaboration that was formed in 1999 by academic health centers committed to Integrative Medicine. The first meeting of this Consortium included eight invited institutions; today membership has grown to thirty-eight. Duke Integrative Medicine faculty have served as leaders in the consortium from its inception, focusing on collective opportunities that advance the field. The Consortium’s work includes the development of goals and objectives recommended for medical school curriculum which were published in Academic Medicine, including “Curriculum in Integrative Medicine: A Guide for Medical Educators.” (Vol 79, 6, June 2004: 521-531).
Funded by the Bravewell Philanthropic Collaborative, BraveNet is Practice Based Research Network (PBRN) composed of eight clinical sites that help advance integrative medicine. BraveNet is designed to help answer practice-relevant questions, link outcomes data with services and billing information, and provide data on new models of integrative care. With the support of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke serves as the Coordinating Center for BraveNet and is responsible to oversee training, information technology, data gathering, analysis, day-to-day operations and communication for BraveNet. Two specific studies are funded and underway. The first is a descriptive study of over 4000 Integrative Medicine patients across the nation. The study aims to better understand who Integrative Medicine patients are as a group, and their reasons for seeking Integrative Medicine. The second study is an outcomes study that focuses on chronic pain patients who use Integrative Medicine services.
(NIH/NCCAM funded) This two-site randomized, controlled trial was conducted in collaboration with Michael Baime, MD at the University of Pennsylvania. It compared two innovative interventions for long term maintenance of significant weight loss.
(NIH/NCCAM funded) Also in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, this study used functional MRI measures to test potential shifts in brain response to food and eating cues as a function of the EMPOWER interventions for a subset of the sample at the University of Pennsylvania site.
