The Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) was founded in July 2011, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a major flagship teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital...

 and the Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

. Its purpose is to bring together researchers who are examining the placebo

Placebo

A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient...

 response and the impact of medical ritual, the patient-physician relationship and the power of imagination, hope, trust, persuasion, compassion and empathic witnessing in the healing process. PiPS research is translational, spanning molecular biology, neuroscience and clinical care, as well as interdisciplinary, ranging from the basic sciences to psychology to the history of medicine. The program hopes to soon expand its efforts to include health policy, with the ultimate goal of improving health care systems by elucidating, quantifying and reaffirming the more intangible and humanistic aspects of medical care.

PiPS researchers include many of the founding members of the field of placebo studies. They drawn from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

’s teaching hospitals, as well as its Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Articles written by PiPS researchers have been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine

New England Journal of Medicine

The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...

, The Lancet

The Lancet

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...

, British Medical Journal

British Medical Journal

BMJ is a partially open-access peer-reviewed medical journal. Originally called the British Medical Journal, the title was officially shortened to BMJ in 1988. The journal is published by the BMJ Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association...

, Annals of Internal Medicine

Annals of Internal Medicine

Annals of Internal Medicine is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians . It publishes research articles and reviews in the area of internal medicine. Its current editor is Christine Laine...

, PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine

PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed medical journal covering the full spectrum of the medical sciences. It began operation on October 19, 2004. It was the second journal of the Public Library of Science , a non-profit open-access publisher. All content in PLoS Medicine is published under the Creative...

, Archives of General Psychiatry

Archives of General Psychiatry

Archives of General Psychiatry is a monthly professional medical journal published by the American Medical Association. Archives of General Psychiatry publishes original, peer reviewed articles about psychiatry, mental health, behavioral sciences and related fields. It is the psychiatric journal...

, American Psychologist

American Psychologist

The American Psychologist is the official academic journal of the American Psychological Association. It contains archival documents and articles covering current issues in psychology, the science and practice of psychology, and psychology's contribution to public policy...

, Psychological Bulletin

Psychological Bulletin

Psychological Bulletin is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in literature reviews. It was founded by Johns Hopkins psychologist James Mark Baldwin in 1904 immediately after he had bought out James McKeen Cattell's share of Psychological Review, which the two had founded ten years...

, Psychological Science

Psychological science

Psychological Science is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Association for Psychological Science , published by SAGE Publications. It is one of the most influential journals in psychology.-Publishings:...

, Journal of Neuroscience

Journal of Neuroscience

The Journal of Neuroscience is a weekly scientific journal published by the Society for Neuroscience. The journal publishes peer-reviewed empirical research articles in the field of neuroscience...

, Social Science & Medicine

Social Science & Medicine

Social Science & Medicine is a peer-reviewed health and social sciences journal. According to its website, it "provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of research findings, reviews and theory in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health...

, Bulletin of the History of Medicine

Bulletin of the History of Medicine

The Bulletin of the History of Medicine is an academic journal founded in 1939. It is the official publication of the American Association for the History of Medicine. It is also the official publication of the Johns Hopkins Institute of the History of Medicine...

, and Psychosomatic Medicine. The team's research has also been featured on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

, CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, HBO, NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

, BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television and radio, Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, Slate Magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker

New Yorker

New Yorker may refer to:* A resident of New York City * A resident of New York state * The New Yorker, a magazine* A predecessor newspaper to Horace Greeley's New York Tribune...

, New York Review of Books, Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

 and Time Magazine.

PiPS is led by the following members of the Harvard faculty:

• Ted Kaptchuk
  Ted Kaptchuk
  Ted Kaptchuk is an author, scholar, scientist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where his research focuses on the placebo effect. He earned his Doctorate of Oriental Medicine after five years of study in China in 1975. Following his return to the United States, he was...
  
  , Director
• Irving Kirsch
  Irving Kirsch
  Irving Kirsch is Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and a lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is also a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Hull, United Kingdom and the University of Connecticut in the...
  
  , PhD, Associate Director
• Randy L. Gollub, MD, PhD, Director of Neuroimaging
• Anne Harrington, PhD, Director of Initiatives in the Humanities
• Efi Kokkoutou, MD, PhD, Director of Molecular Biology Research
• John Kelley, PhD, Director of Psychological Research
• Anthony Lembo, MD, Director of Clinical Research

External links

• Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter website
• PLoS ONE article
• PLoS Medicine article