Institute News

October 2, 2020

Dr. Chris D'Adamo Joins Nutritionist Podcast to Discuss

a Healthy Immune System

Dr. Chris D'Adamo, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, joined the nutritionists at the Giant Food Nutrition Made Easy Podcast. The podcast discusses lifestyle activities and foods that can help support a healthy immune system.

Dr. D'Adamo discussing vitamins such as vitamin C, D, E, Zinc, and Selenium; foods like probiotics, raw honey, and mushrooms; and supplements like beta-glucans, berberine, and elderberry.

For more information on these foods, vitamins, and supplements that could boost your immune system, click here.

October 2, 2020

What is the State of Primary Care During COVID-19?

September 30, 2020

Sara L. Warber, MD, Co-Authors a Case Study Discussing the Methods of

Integrating Transdisciplinary Teams to Support Reciprocal Healing

The case study, titled "Methods for Integrating Transdisciplinary Teams in Support of Reciprocal Healing: A Case Study." The paper features transdisciplinary teams that have the potential to address complex socioecological problems and details a collaborative process undertaken to address these challenges. To read the full paper, click here.

September 25, 2020

Chris D'Adamo, PhD, Featured Local News Sources

to Discuss Upcoming Publication

Dr. D'Adamo, Director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, was featured on Baltimore's FOX45 Morning News and WTOP News Radio to discuss the upcoming publication in the Food Quality and Preference Journal. The paper uses the data collected during the Institute Program, Spice My Plate, which took place at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland.

September 1, 2020

Institute Program Team Paper Accepted for Publication

Brandin Bowden, MS, Director of Community Programs at the Institute for Integrative Health, and Chris D'Adamo, PhD, Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Program Director at the Institute for Integrative Health, recently submitted a paper for publication to the Journal of Food Quality and Preferences. As of September 1st, the paper was accepted for publication and will appear in the March 2021 issue. The paper "The addition of spices and herbs to vegetables in the National School Lunch Program increased vegetable intake at an urban, economically-undeserved, and predominantly African-American high school" features data collected from the Institute program Spice My Plate, which took place at the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore, Maryland.

September 1, 2020

InVIVO Planetary Health and Institute Publish Paper

InVIVO co-founding president, Susan L. Prescott, MD, PhD, Alan C. Logan, and Institute co-founders Susan Berman and Brian Berman, MD, publish paper in Challenges titled "Project Earthrise: Inspiring Creativity, Kindness and Imagination in Planetary Health."

August 11, 2020

Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field Publishes

Second Newsletter

Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field publishes its second quarterly newsletter.

This edition of the newsletter includes updates from the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Satellite Groups in China, South Korea, and Switzerland and a new systematic review assessing interventions for managing hot flashes in cancer patients.

Included in the newsletter are some Cochrane Evidence Summaries for Vitamin C supplements to prevent and treat pneumonia and interventions for increasing fruit and vegetable intake in young children.

To sign up for the Cochrane Complementary Medicine mailing list, visit https://cam.cochrane.org/join-us.

August 4, 2020

Institute Scholar, Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, Co-Authors New Paper in

The Milbank Quarterly

Institute Scholar, Steven Woolf, MD, MPH, co-authors a new paper in The Milbank Quarterly. This paper merges life expectancy data from several decades with the annual data on 18 state-level policies to ascertain why life expectancy across the nation has declined in recent years and become unequal across states. To read the study, click here.

July 15, 2020

Institute Fellow, Brita Roy, MD, MPH, MHS, Co-Authors Paper Comparing

the Health and Social Care Between Countries

Institute Fellow, Brita Roy, MD, MPH, MHS, and colleagues publish a paper looking at the quantitative data of health and social care in different nations. The paper, Assessing Quantitative Comparisons of Health and Social Care Between Countries, is published in JAMA. To read the full paper, click here.
July 14, 2020

Institute Fellow Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, Named

2020 Family Physician of the Year

The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians named Institute Fellow Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, as the 2020 Family Physician of the Year. This annual award is presented to a physician who meets and exceeds the criteria of being an outstanding family physician as well as other criteria including maintaining high professional standards and services, providing high quality and family-centered care, and being active in the community. July 7, 2020

Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD, Featured in New Article About Primary Care

Institute Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD, is featured in a new article about the state of primary care. More than a third of primary care practices have either laid off or furloughed employees in the past month and may continue once insurance companies return to normal telehealth policies. To read the full article, click here.

June 30, 2020

Institute Scholar, Judy Rollins, PhD, RN, Co-Authors Paper on Empathetic

Art in Children

Institute Scholar, Judy Rollins, PhD, RN co-authored a paper on how empathetic art can help reduce stress in children coping with chronic medical conditions. The paper published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies described the emergent theory that artists can express empathy through their art, help humanize pediatric healthcare, and help patients feel heard. For more information on this paper, click here. June 11, 2020

Institute Scholar, Frederick Foote, MD, Spoke at Alaska Walk & Bike

Virtual Conference

Institute Scholar, Fred Foote, MD, CAPT, MC, USN (Ret.) was invited to speak at the Alaska Walk & Bike Virtual Conference on Thursday, June 11, 2020. The four-day virtual conference covered the themes of walking to connect, walking is good medicine, parks and health, and biking to health. The conference also featured community spokespeople from Homer, Sitka, Kodiak, Nome, and Anchorage. June 10, 2020

Paper Co-Authored by Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD, Discussing

the 1966 Report Health Is a Community Affair

Institute Visiting Visionary, Rebecca Etz, PhD, co-authors a paper published in The Milbank Quarterly titled "What 1966 Can Teach Us About the Future of Primary Care: The Case for Communities of Solution". This reflection takes a detailed look at a 1966 report by the National Commission on Community Health Services titled "Health Is a Community Affair." The original report offers a blueprint on how the American health care system can be more responsive and how an integrated primary care and public health approach is essential for the well-being of communities going forward. Using these ideas, the reflection discusses how we can use these approaches in our current health care systems.

May 1, 2020

Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field Publishes

First Quarterly Newsletter

Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field publishes its first quarterly newsletter. 

To sign up for the Cochrane Complementary Medicine mailing list, visit https://cam.cochrane.org/join-us.

The Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field was co-founded in 1996 by Dr. Brian Berman and is based at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine.  It is the Cochrane group dedicated to supporting the evidence base in complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAM). To meet the growing demand for information about CAM therapies among researchers, healthcare providers, patients, and the general public, the Cochrane Complementary Medicine Field:

• Prepares Cochrane systematic reviews on CAM therapies;

• Develops resources to support the conduct of high-quality systematic reviews on CAM therapies; and

• Makes the evidence from systematic reviews on CAM therapies available and accessible to researchers, clinicians, and consumers.

The Field also maintains a database of researchers, clinicians, and consumers who have expressed an interest in the evidence base for CAM therapies. The database contains names of more than two hundred people from across the world, with CAM interests ranging from Ayurveda to vitamin therapies.

April 5, 2020

Institute Scholar Claudia Witt, MD, MBA Co-Authors Overview

of CAM for the Treatment of COVID-19

Institute Scholar Claudia Witt, MD, MBA co-authors a paper for the use of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine for the treatment of COVID-19. The paper, Complementary, alternative and integrative medicine (CAM) for the treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): an overview, is a joint publication of the Institute for Complementary and Integrative Medicine, University Hospital Zurich and Cochrane Complementary Medicine Switzerland. The reviewers found extensive use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in COVID-19 treatment and identified five case series suggesting potential effectiveness. However, there is currently insufficient evidence to recommend any specific CAM treatments for COVID-19 disease. April 2, 2020

Dr. D'Adamo Weighs in on Elderberry Debate

Chris D'Adamo, a program advisor at the Institute and director at the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine, weighs in on the debate on whether or not it is safe for the continued use of elderberry supplements during the COVID-19 outbreak. Over the past month, many social media influencers have been advising their followers to stay away from elderberry supplements, citing the dangers of cytokine storms. However, Dr. D'Adamo and other experts found these advisories to be misleading.

"Elderberry can increase inflammatory cytokines in people with an otherwise healthy condition, that’s desirable that helps us fight infections; however, there’s no evidence that elderberry would increase the risk of a cytokine storm," Dr. Chris D'adamo said.

To see the full story, click here.

April 1, 2020

Institute Scholar Steven Woolf, MD, MPH Provides A New Perspective
on the COVID-19 Public Health Debate

Looking at the wider implications of these times, Institute Scholar, Steven Woolf, MD, MPH breaks down the current health debate: should the US continue the public health approach of stay-at-home orders while damaging the economy or reopen businesses and forfeit lives for the greater good? The article, Coronavirus Is Bad Enough, But There’s a Larger Threat to Our Health, was published in the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) March 2020 Population News Roundup. February 29, 2020

Mission Thrive Team Wins Best Raw Dish at Kale Cook-Off

September 28, 2019

Cooking Up Health with CH&M Workshops

After the course, 87% of the students said that they would utilize the new information in their own lives, while 80% of the students said that it would also help them offer practical nutrition advice to future patients. The Institute will continue hosting the workshops through the winter with plans of rolling out a more substantial training for the next incoming cohort of medical students in 2020.

We are pleased to welcome Rebecca Etz, PhD, as the Institute’s inaugural Visiting Visionary! As a cultural anthropologist who specializes in primary care practice transformation and patient-centered care, Dr. Etz serves as the Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Larry A. Green Center in the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a Visiting Visionary, she will partner with national primary care, policy, and scientific leaders to grow and articulate the intellectual foundations and guiding principles for the next generation of primary care.

September 1, 2019

During the meeting, Scholar Sara Warber also presented on her work on a new project, Dreams of Nature, Health, and a Balanced Life, and Fellow Heidi Gullett spoke about climate change and the health training she leads for medical students. Other highlights from the meeting included a talk on neuroesthetics, as well as the impact of mindfulness practice on inflammation, and an overview of the Feldenkrais Method—a somatic learning practice with many therapeutic effects including pain management.

August 26, 2019

Mission Thrive Summer (MTS), the Institute’s "work, learn, and earn" program for Baltimore City high school students, just wrapped its seventh summer at Civic Works Real Food Farm. This summer employment program aims to provide young people with tools to make healthier individual choices and to empower communities in Baltimore through leadership, education, and service.

As in past years, the youth of MTS participated in our annual MTS Service Week. This week introduced participants to community service activities and engaging them in opportunities to help uplift individuals within their own communities. MTS crew members explored the concept of service while brainstorming ways to get Greenmount West Community Center (GWCC) summer camp youth excited about healthier eating through USDA MyPlate food groups. They adapted MTS lessons and demonstrations, bringing in their own creativity and knowledge to create unique games and activities for the pre-K to 2nd-grade campers. The activities presented during Service Week at GWCC included coloring activities, food group dance games, and making delicious smoothies!

The MTS youth also prepared more than 2,000 meals for Moveable Feast, a local organization that provides nutritious meals to individuals living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses. During the third week of MTS, crew leaders stepped away from the farm completely to work onsite with Moveable Feast and GWCC.

Mission Thrive Summer is excited to continue educating and inspiring the future generation of leaders and change agents here in Baltimore. If you want to hear more service-related highlights or what’s in store for MTS 2020, please contact MTS coordinator Nicola Norman at nnorman@tiih.or​g or 443-681-7608.

June 25, 2019

Introducing the 2019 Mission Thrive Summer Crew Leaders

Plans are well underway with the final preparations for the 2019 Mission Thrive Summer Crew Leader Training! This training is an 80-hour integrative health program designed to provide our Mission Thrive Summer staff with a comprehensive toolkit and resources to successfully engage 30 summer youth participants in their experiential education and job experience at Real Food Farm (RFF). Some topics that will be covered in this year's training include mentorship and relationship building, inequality in the food system, motivating groups, trauma-informed practices in community programs, CPR certification, and effective communication.

The 2019 MTS Crew Leaders: Morgan Wu, Public Health major at Johns Hopkins University; Yasmin Bell, Neuro and Clinical Psychology Major at St Mary’s College; Emmanuel West, Theatre Arts major at Frostburg University; and Ryan Bowens, former Baltimore Youth Urban Debate League coach, and a graduate of Morgan State University.

This year we have invited the Baltimore Conservation Leadership Corps Crew Leaders to join us for the Crew Leader Training. We believe this integrative training can be adapted to support youth summer programming across the city.

June 25, 2019

Veteran-Ready Micro-Credential Training Featured in Local News Story

May 30, 2019

April 1, 2019

Institute Scholar Publishes Research on the Impact of Mindfulness on Physical Disease

Institute Fellow, Jeffrey Greeson, PhD, published an important review on Mindfulness and Physical Disease: A Concise Review in Current Opinion in Psychology.  The paper summarizes current research on the impact of mindfulness in the management of symptoms, treatment or prevention of various physical diseases.  The article is currently available online and for a limited time, the full article is publicly available for free here, until April 09, 2019. April 1, 2019

Institute Welcomes Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, as Newest Fellow

The Institute is pleased to welcome Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, of Case Western Reserve University, as our newest TIIH Fellow! Dr. Gullett, who specializes in family medicine and community health, will explore the role of primary care in cultivating social capital, to support a patient’s move out of poverty. Kurt Stange, MD, PhD, an Institute Scholar and colleague of Dr. Gullett, said “Dr. Gullett is a force for integration in a health care system and a society that is increasingly fragmented.  She works tirelessly to advance understanding about how health care and public health can work together to improve the health and equity of our communities.” March 31, 2019

Institute President Leads Panel Discussion at the National Center for

Complementary and Integrative Health

In February, TIIH President, Brian Berman, MD, led an important panel discussion on the Reduction of Opioid Use by Acupuncture during Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: a Randomized Controlled Trial as part of an NIH workshop on Translating Fundamental Science of Acupuncture into Clinical Practice for Cancer Symptom Management, Pain, and Substance Abuse, hosted by the National Cancer Institute and National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.  This event featured presentations from global research leaders in cancer pain management. March 15, 2019

Institute Scholar Leads Innovative Study on

Empathetic Art and Patient Healing

Institute Scholar, Judy Rollins, RN, PhD, is leading a study to understand how art may create a more empathetic and compassionate environment that helps patients feel seen, heard, and understood. To help answer this question, two artists were asked to create empathetic artistic interpretations of the personal journeys of eight young people living with a serious medical. The resulting paintings and narratives, along with snapshots of the children’s responses have been incorporated into a thoughtful Being Heard exhibit.  Following display at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center (January – early March), the exhibit is currently on display at the Walter Reed National Military Center in Bethesda, Maryland. 

February 21, 2019

Creative Forces & CSC Work to Heal Veterans at Walter Reed

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, a VAC program partner, announced an expansion of its acting program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. These acting workshops will help US veterans, their families, and their caregivers confront the challenges of injury and the emotional experiences of war. Vet Arts Connect will be on hand to collect and evaluate the data of this program. 

To read the full press release and learn more about this initiative, click here.

February 15, 2019

Panel Hosted on Public Health and Violence Prevention

The February 2019 Scholars & Fellows Meeting featured a special panel on Building Relationships & Resilience: Public Health Approaches to Violence Prevention discussing strategies to prevent violence with efforts that strengthen community bonds through community mobilization, outreach, public education, faith, and criminal justice community involvement. Panelists included Baltimore Ceasefire founder Erricka Bridgeford, Safe Streets outreach coordinator Dante Bridgeford, chief science officer of the Avielle Foundation Linda Degutis, DrPH, MSN and clinical psychologist, training and technical assistance specialist for the Mid-Atlantic PBIS Network at Sheppard Pratt Health Systems clinical psychologist Duane Thomas, PhD.

February 6, 2019

Discussion Panel Featuring Dr. Sandro Galea Hosted at the Institute

On February 4^th, the Institute welcomed more than 100 attendees for a special evening symposium, Consequential Public Health: Doing What Matters for Population Health, featuring a keynote presentation by Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH, an internationally renowned epidemiologist and author, who spoke on the urgent need to reorient epidemiology and public health to make a difference in health outcomes and the challenges of creating real solutions to improve population health during such divided times. Following the keynote presentation, former U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski and Jay Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, joined Dr. Galea for a panel discussion with the audience.

June 3, 2017

October 27, 2017

Veterans Hike Across Maryland: Just for the Health of It

The Veterans Hike Across Maryland, a joint program with Vet Arts Connect and the Mid Atlantic Hiking Group, announced an end-of-program celebration to be held on Veterans Day 2017. More than 40 participants have signed up to join the final hike of the season, which will end in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. 

Veterans Hike Across Maryland began in September at the Pennsylvania/Maryland line on the Appalachian Trail. The participants completed more than 41 miles of the Appalachian Trail across five consecutive hikes. 

This annual program is free to veterans and open to all service branches, no matter of rank, gender or years served. Each participant is required to take at least three of the five hikes and participate in an evaluation process that includes surveys at the beginning and the end of the program to test for improvement in symptoms that are commonly associated with the most common invisible wounds of war including PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.) 

The research from the project is designed to investigate the impact of active engagement in arts and nature activities on symptoms like stress, anxiety, depression, social interaction, sleep disturbance, and anger. 

For more information on this program, subscribe to our monthly newsletter.