![[picture of Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D.]](http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/news/pics/kronenberg_fredi.jpg) Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D.,
The Institute of Medicine recently released its report on the use of complementary and alternative medicine. Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D., director of The Richard & Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) at Columbia University Medical Center says that today's report highlights some of the most pressing issues related to alternative medicine. Dr. Kronenberg is the director of a CAM specialty center funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Kronenberg's comments on the issues raised by the report include: RESEARCH IN COMPLEMENTARY & ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: Conventional and complementary therapy research should be held to the same principles and standards of evidence of effectiveness. EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF DOCTORS: It's important that we train current physicians and other health care providers who did not learn about CAM therapies in their medical training, but now want to work with patients who are using these therapies. Columbia offers a course entitled "Botanical Medicine in Modern Clinical practice,” which provides information on the current level of evidence (or lack thereof) for the most commonly used, relatively safe, herbal medicines. ETHNO MEDICINE AND PUBLIC HEALTH: In many of our urban areas people from around the world use the medicines of their home countries. It behooves us to assess the impact on the public health of the use of these remedies by various ethnic populations around the country. For more information or to schedule an interview with Dr. Kronenberg, contact Alex Lyda at mal2133@columbia.edu or 212-305-0820.
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