The European Society of Integrative Medicine (ESIM) has announced the winners of a new international prize. The “Excellence in Integrative Medicine Research Award” recognizes outstanding scientific projects that document the integration of conventional and complementary medicine, including its bioregulatory aspects. The prize supported by Heel rewards both basic and clinical research with 10,000 Euro each. 43 manuscripts were reviewed by an independent jury of international scientists.
“We were highly impressed by the quality and quantity of the submitted publications that document and encourage further research in the field of Integrative Medicine”, says Prof. Dr. Stefan Willich, Chairman of the ESIM and Director of the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics of the Charité in Berlin, Germany. “The jury privileged the quality of the study designs, the level of the journal where the work was published and the fact that it serves the integrative medicine aspects of building the bridge between allopathic and complementary medicine.”
„This international award is unique”, says Dr. Ghassan Andraos, Head of Global Medicine at Heel in Baden-Baden, Germany.”The high quality of the rewarded scientific projects is recognized through both their publication in peer-reviewed journals and their selection by a jury of leading scientists in the field of Integrative Medicine. For Heel, this prize marks its long standing commitment to research in the field of Integrative Medicine and complements the company’s growing partnerships in the fields of pre-clinical and clinical research.”
This year’s “Excellence in Integrative Medicine Research Award” in the pre-clinical category goes to Dr. Purusotam Basnet from the University Hospital of North Norway in Tromso, Norway. His paper published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Science is entitled ‘Liposomal delivery system enhances anti-inflammatory properties of Curcumin’ and contributes to better understanding and enhancement of pharmacological activity of this well established natural anti-oxidant.
The clinical award has been split in two. The winners are Dr. Peter Kooreman, professor of Health Economics at the University of Tilburg in Tilburg together with Dr. Erik Baars from the University of Applied Sciences in Leiden, both from the Netherlands, as well as Dr. Daniel Furst from the University of California in Los Angeles, USA. Kooreman’s and Baars’ study published in the European Journal of Health Economics showed that ‘Patients whose GP knows complementary medicine tend to have lower costs and live longer’. Furst’s ‘Double-blind, randomized controlled, pilot study comparing classic ayurvedic medicine, methotrexate and their combination in rheumatoid arthritis’ was published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology.
