David Peters (professor)

David Peters is a Professor of Integrated Healthcare at the University of Westminster.

He trained as a family doctor, and later in osteopathic medicine and as a musculoskeletal physician. From 1990 until 2005 he directed the complementary therapies development programme at Marylebone Health Centre (MHC), a Central London NHS GP unit set up in 1986 to develop new approaches to inner city primary healthcare.

He was among the founding faculty of the University of Westminster School of Integrated Health which merged with the Department of Bioscience in 2009 to form the School of Life Sciences. He is now Professor of Integrated Healthcare and Clinical Director.

Publications

He has co-authored or edited five books about integrated healthcare^[1][2][3] and led on a series of research projects concerned with implementing or evaluating complementary medicine in mainstream settings. His works include co-authorship of the Encyclopaedia of Complementary Medicine^[4] and Understanding the placebo effect in complementary medicine^[5].

Research and clinicial interests

One current project is developing PCT-wide access to acupuncture and stress reduction for people with long-term low back pain. He was until 2010 Chair of the British Holistic Medical Association – an open association of practitioners working to develop holistic healthcare – whose Journal of Holistic Healthcare he edits. He is a director of The College of Medicine whose aim is to encourage medicine to move in a more patient-centred and values-based direction.

His clinical work as a musculo-skeletal physician includes osteopathy and acupuncture, and by somatically-oriented psychotherapeutic methods devised by Peter Levine, as well as exploration of working with the relaxation response, yoga and meditation. A particular clinical interest is in dysregulatory syndromes where persistent pain and/or fatigue commonly overlap with trauma and breathing pattern disorders. His R&D interests include the role of non-pharmaceutical treatments in mainstream medicine, and self-care – particularly in long term conditions - an area of research for which he has been funded by the Department of Health and others to create and delivery evidence-based information.

References

1. ^ Peters D, Woodham A, 2000. Editor/author (with Anne Woodham). The complete guide to integrated medicine. Dorling Kindersley
2. ^ Peters D, Chaitow L, Morrison S, Harris G 2002. Integrating Complementary Therapies: a practical guide for primary care. Harcourt. Edinburgh
3. ^ Peters D (ed), Chaitow L, Lewith G, Fisher P, MacIntyre M, Chevalier A, Hemmings A, Briffa J, Kiefer D, Horwitz R, Preston P. 2005. The Complete Family Guide to New Medicine. Dorling Kindersey.
4. ^ Woodham A, Peters D 1997. The Encyclopaedia of Complementary Medicine. Dorling Kindersley. London
5. ^ Peters D 2001 Understanding the placebo effect in complementary medicine (ed) Harcourt Brace Edinburgh.