Ted Kaptchuk
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Kaptchuk’s concern is the intersection of placebo studies and ritual theory. In conjunction with his colleagues at the various teaching hospitals, Prof. Kaptchuk’s work involves a multidisciplinary investigation of placebo effects that seeks to integrate concepts, research designs, and analytic methods drawn from the basic, clinical, and social sciences as well as the humanities (e.g., history and bioethics). He is currently director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and Therapeutic Encounter hosted at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Ted J. Kaptchuk is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapautic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also a lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As a leading figure in placebo studies, a scholar of East Asian medicine, and an academic authority on medical pluralism, Professor Kaptchuk’s career has spanned multiple disciplines, drawing upon concepts, research designs and analytical methods from the humanities and basic and clinical and social sciences.