Woodson Merrell

Woodson C. Merrell, MD, Sc.D.(hc) is the M. Anthony Fisher Director of Integrative Medicine at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing (CCHH) in New York City. This Center is part of Beth Israel Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The facility, the nation's largest and most comprehensive academic integrative medical center is dedicated to providing the highest quality clinical care, education, and research for both health consumers and medical professionals, combining the best of evidence-based conventional medicine, complementary/alternative medicine and indigenous medical traditions. Dr. Merrell is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at his alma mater Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he started one of the nation's first courses in integrative medicine for medical students in 1994. Dr. Merrell has had a busy private practice in integrative internal medicine since 1985 in New York City. He is an attending physician in the Departments of Medicine at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Centers. He has expertise and special interests in mind-body therapies (especially yoga, qi gong, and meditation), acupuncture, botanical therapies, nutrition and nutraceuticals, homeopathy, and indigenous healing systems (particularly Tibetan and Chinese Medicine). He has served as director, scientific director, co-developer, presenter and on the advisory boards for many professional medical conferences such as: Nutritional Medicine; Botanical Medicine; Native American Healing Traditions; Tibetan Medicine; the Business of Integrative Medicine; CAM Expo; Models of Healthcare; and Overview of Integrative Medicine. At CCHH Dr. Merrell supervises an extensive array of consumer and educational programs. These include training for medical, chiropractic and acupuncture students, as well as for residents and fellowships in integrative medicine. He is a member of the working group on curricular reform for integrative medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine He is committed to public policy and practice standards in integrative medicine, having testified on integrative medicine to both Houses of Congress, as well as New York City and State agencies. He has served as Chairman of New York State's Board of Acupuncture, and since 1995 has been a Board Member of New York State's Office of Professional Medical Conduct. Dr. Merrell is on the Steering and Policy Committees of the national Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. This is an organization comprising 25% of the nation's medical schools (including Harvard, Duke, Penn, Columbia, UCLA, Michigan, Einstein, Arizona, UCSF, Maryland, and Georgetown) pledged to transform medical education and physician training with integrative medicine. He is overseeing numerous research projects at CCHH, including imagery technique in low back pain, life-style changes in asthma, yoga in stroke recovery, acupuncture & craniosacral therapy in asthma, and botanicals in arthritis. In 2004 he was a finalist for the first annual Bravewell Award for leadership in integrative medicine. Dr. Merrell has lectured extensively to both consumer and professional groups on integrative medicine and the nature of healing and wellness. He has been a consultant to many hospitals, medical centers and medical schools to help increase their integrative approach to healthcare. He is a frequent guest for all major media both regionally and nationally, including CBS Morning Show, CNN, MSNBC, WABC, the View, NPR, WBAI, Sirius, Time, Forbes, Barrons, Leaders, W, Elle, Self, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, Daily News, etc. Dr Merrell passionately believes that integrative medicine is the future of medicine, that there is significant evidence-basis for its use right now, and that utilizing this approach while empowering the patient and providing compassionate, relationship-centered integrative care is critical for transforming the nation's ailing healthcare system.

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