Host: Cathleen Margolin, PhD
Guest: Woodson Merrell, MD
When clothing designer Donna Karan lost her husband and then her best friend to cancer, she felt frustrated with the limitations of the strictly Western style of medical care they had received. Ms. Karan recognized the important contributions of science from Western medicine, but she also believed that healing comes from spiritual and alternative means. Her desire to combine the best of Eastern and Western healing methods resulted in an $850,000 grant to Beth Israel Medical Center's Continuum Center for Health and Healing and department of integrative medicine in New York City. Dr. Woodson Merrell, chair of the department of integrative medicine, explains how integrative therapies are being interwoven with care strategies for complex medical cases and explores the potential of integrative medicine, as well as research into these therapies and what would lead to their taking hold at more hospitals across the country. Dr. Cathleen Margolin hosts.