HerbalEGram: Volume 5, Number 2, February 2008

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on January 24 that Josephine Briggs, MD, will serve as the new director of the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).¹ Dr. Briggs previously served as a director for another NIH institution, and she most recently worked as the senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

“I am honored to be selected to lead NCCAM and welcome the opportunity to develop further the NIH investment in this exciting field of biomedical investigation,” said Dr. Briggs, according to a recent NIH press release.¹ “Alternative approaches to health and wellness are of enormous public interest, and we need a strong portfolio of science in this area. The NIH has already taken significant steps to build research programs to explore the potential of CAM. I look forward to working with scientists and the CAM community as well as my colleagues across the NIH to strengthen our understanding of the potential of CAM and to examine the opportunities for integration of proven CAM approaches into our nation’s healthcare delivery.”

Dr. Briggs has published more than 125 research articles and has received the Volhard Prize of the German Nephrological Society. Her research interests include the renin-angiotensin system, diabetic nephropathy, and the effect of antioxidants in kidney disease. She was a professor of internal medicine and physiology at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 1997, after which she served as director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hermatologic Diseases in the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases until 2006.

“We are pleased to have Dr. Briggs return to NIH to lead NCCAM,” said Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, NIH director, according to the NIH press release.¹ “She has been a leader in trans-NIH activities and her in-depth understanding of NIH and translational research will bring new opportunities to the study of CAM.”

However, the news of Dr. Briggs’ appointment was met with some vocal disappointment. CAM expert and ABC Board of Trustees member John Weeks sent an open letter to Dr. Briggs in his online publication “The Integrator Blog,” in which he pointed out that NCCAM has once again appointed a leader of NCCAM who has no previous experience with CAM modalities.² (Weeks referred to the previous NCCAM director, the late Stephen E. Straus, MD, who also came to the Center with no previous CAM experience.) Weeks suggested that Dr. Briggs immediately familiarize herself with CAM modalities through available resources and work to enhance “whole systems” and “whole practice” initiatives, which he argued currently languish at NCCAM. Weeks’ full comments are available here.

NCCAM’s first director, Dr. Straus, stepped down from his position at NCCAM in November of 2006 for health reasons.^1,3 Ruth L. Kirschstein, MD, assumed temporary leadership of NCCAM while the NIH searched for a new director of the center. Dr. Straus died in May of 2007. A tribute article regarding his life and contribution to the CAM field was published in HerbalGram issue 75, available here.⁴

— Courtney Cavaliere

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