NED Planning Team Member
Ben Kligler
Dr. Ben Kligler is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and teaches in the Beth Israel Residency Program in Urban Family Practice. He is currently the Research Director of the Beth Israel Center for Health and Healing, an integrative medicine practice which opened in May 2000. In addition, Dr. Kligler is Co-director of the Beth Israel Fellowship Program in Integrative Medicine, which accepted its first fellows for training in January 2002. Dr. Kligler is the author of Curriculum in Complementary Therapies: A Guide for the Medical Educator, which is currently distributed through the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. He is also formerly an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, and co-editor of Integrative Medicine: Principles for Practice, a textbook recently published by McGraw-Hill. Dr. Kligler is certified in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and acupuncture, and incorporates these and the use of botanical medicines into his practice at the Center for Health and Healing. Dr. Kligler's primary academic interest is in the development of curriculum for physicians-in-training in the area of complementary and alternative medicine. He was founding Co-chair of the Education Working Group of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. He is former chair of the Alternative Medicine Interest Group in the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and is a founding member and organizer of the American Association of Medical Colleges Special Interest Group on Alternative Medicine. All of these groups are currently working to make teaching on alternative medicine a required part of medical education in the United States. Dr. Kligler first became interested in the medicinal uses of herbs as an undergraduate major in biology and botany. He has pursued a study of botanical medicines over the subsequent fifteen years, and has been involved with teaching conventional doctors about the uses of herbs for the past seven years. Prior to entering medical school, he trained in Shiatsu Massage and developed a small private practice in Boston. Dr. Kligler is also certified in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy by the New York Society for Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. He lectures widely to medical students, residents, and physicians in the New York area and elsewhere on the applications of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in conventional medical practice. (bkligler@bethisraelny.org, (646) 935-2251)