How Tai Chi Research is Informing the Interdependence of Cognitive and Motor Skills in Aging
Dr. Peter Wayne is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is the Research Director for the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Wayne served as the Director of Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Programs at the Osher Research Center, and as the founding Research Director at the New England School of Acupuncture.
The primary focus of Dr. Wayne’s research is evaluating how mind-body and related complementary and alternative medicine practices clinically impact chronic health conditions, and understanding the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying observed therapeutic effects. He has served as a principal or co-investigator on more than 20 NIH-funded studies. He has been involved in the design, conduct, analysis, and interpretation of clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of Tai Chi exercise for balance disorders, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoporosis, and depression, and trials evaluating acupuncture for stroke-related paralysis, hypertension, endometriosis, and chemoradiation-related immune and swallowing side effects in cancer patients. He currently serves as Principal Investigator (with Dr. Buring) of an NCCAM-funded grant on the Use and Effectiveness of a Model Integrative Care Clinic in an Academic Hospital, to characterize referral and practice patterns and aspects of communication and decision-making in the use of conventional and CAM therapies at the Osher Clinical Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of an integrative care team in the treatment of chronic low back pain.
Dr. Wayne is actively involved in the teaching and training of students and fellows in integrative medicine research. He served as Principal Investigator of an NCCAM-funded Developmental Center Grant at the New England School of Acupuncture for which the Harvard Medical School Osher Research Center served as primary academic advisor; the center supported a cross-institutional training program for acupuncture research. He currently serves as Faculty for the NIH T32 research training grant in Complementary and Integrative Medicine, funded by NCCAM, and is a mentor for multiple NCCAM career award recipients, including Dr. Weidong Lu, who is the first recipient of the NCCAM/Bernard Osher Foundation CAM Practitioner Research Career Development Award. Dr. Wayne is the author of the Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi, published in 2013 by Harvard Health Publications and Shambala Press.
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