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The Re-emergence of Balanced Medicine; Reflections from the Growth of Integrative and Traditional Care

Dr. David Reilly and Dr. Gerard Bodeker
June 20

David Reilly asks: Why has the biggest shift in western medicine in recent years been the demand for complementary medicine? He suggests that the main need is to re-humanise medicine. Gerard Bodeker sees a similar shift in the developing world in which dehumanising has combined with unaffordable cost and other adverse factors. The speakers examine these trends and what they imply.

David Reilly graduated from Glasgow University in 1978. In 1983 he published Young Doctors' Views on Alternative Medicine (BMJ) which was seen as a seminal influence in the development of this field. He then trained in hypnosis, acupuncture and homeopathy, examining the placebo hypothesis as an explanation for homeopathy in a way which helped to open up that subject to scientific debate.

Based at Glasgow University, he went on to explore how to integrate forms of care without compromising a whole-person approach, developing many points of contact between orthodox and complementary disciplines. He is now Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medicine at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and lead Consultant Physician at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital which he is helping to develop as an NHS clinical and academic centre for integrative care, while contributing to the work of government agencies in the UK, Europe and the USA. His principal skills and interests lie in the creation of 'therapeutic consultations'.

Gerard Bodeker first worked in community health and social development with Australian Aboriginal communities. His doctoral research examined the WHO's policy on traditional medicine and considered the differing experiences of China and India in incorporating their indigenous traditions into national health policy. He serves as advisor to such international organisations as the African Development Bank, the Commonwealth and the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation. He is currently chairman of the Global Initiative for Traditional Systems of Health (GIFTS), serves on the Prince of Wales' Advisory Group on Integrated Medicine, is on the board of the Rozenthan Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine at Columbia University, New York and advises the US Office of Alternative Medicine. He is co-author of the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on complementary medicine.