Two “prophets of Mind-Body Medicine” appeared together on the same stage to open the Benson-Henry Mind-Body Institute’s (BHI) annual CME Conference.  Herbert Benson, MD and Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD earned a standing ovation November 5^th after discussing their groundbreaking work and experiences over 40+ years advocating for mind body health.

“It is such an honor to have two prophets of mind-body medicine here to talk about the work they have been advocating for for so long,” said BHI Executive Director Gregory L. Fricchione.  “The world is catching up to their vision, and this is a historic occasion.”

The four-day conference at Harvard Medical School  provided more than 400 integrative medicine practitioners from across the globe an opportunity to explore cutting edge research, share best practices and discover new strategies for treating patients.

Held annually since the late 1970s, the conference was especially salient this year as it follows on the heels of the publication of an exciting preliminary study published in October by James E. Stahl, MD, of the MGH Institute for Technology Assessment and a team of Benson-Henry Institute researchers. The study found that patients who participated in BHI programs reduced their medical visits on average by 43% in the year after taking part. Previously affiliated with the Benson-Henry Institute, Dr. Stahl is now Chief of General Internal Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

“Studies show that 60 to 90 percent of all medical visits are stress-related.  This research proves that we can greatly improve the lives of our patients by integrating stress reduction into our healthcare delivery model,” said Dr. Benson, a co-author of the study.  “This could improve patients’ overall health and reduce healthcare costs dramatically.  It’s time to integrate this approach into mainstream medicine.”

Dr. Kabat-Zinn, who founded the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said that participatory medicine will be the prescription for public health in the coming decades.

The conference featured two keynote speakers, Anthony Biglan, PhD, senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute and co-director of the Promise Neighborhood Research Consortium; and Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, professor of Social Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard School of Public Health.

The four-day course had a robust schedule, with lectures and workshops covering a number of topics from changing the healthcare delivery model to stress reduction in children and the effects of stress on gastroenterology and inflammatory bowel disease.  Participants were offered small group lectures and question and answer sessions on establishing a mind body clinic, the benefits of mind body medicine and sleep and working with youth to build resiliency, among other topics.

Click here for preliminary information about the 2016 CME Course.