David Peters is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of integrated healthcare at the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

Career

Peters trained as a

family doctor Family medicine is a medical specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive health care for the individual and family across all ages, genders, diseases, and parts of the body. The specialist, who is usually a primary care physician, is ...

and later in

osteopathic medicine Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO or D.O., or in Australia DO USA) is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic Medical school in the United States, medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Medicine (M ...

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. Peters was among the founding faculty of the

School of Integrated Health which merged with the Department of Bioscience in 2009 to form the School of Life Sciences.

Publications

Peters has co-authored or edited five books about integrated healthcare. His works include co-author/editorship of the ''Encyclopaedia of Complementary Medicine'' and ''Understanding the Placebo Effect in Complementary Medicine''.Peters D (ed) 2001, Understanding the Placebo Effect in Complementary Medicine, Harcourt Brace, Edinburgh.

Research and clinical interests

Peters has led a series of research projects concerned with implementing or evaluating of

complementary medicine Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices ar ...

in mainstream settings. One current project is developing PCT-wide access to

acupuncture Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientif ...

and stress reduction for people with long-term low back pain. Peters was, until 2010, chair of the British Holistic Medical Association, whose '' Journal of Holistic Healthcare'' he edits. He is a director of

The College of Medicine The College of Medicine (CoM) is a United Kingdom-based organisation founded in October 2010 that grew out of The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health after it was shut down due to accounting fraud. It is chaired by Michael Dixon, a former d ...

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 Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

, 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

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

interests include the role of non-pharmaceutical treatments in mainstream medicine, and self-care – particularly in long term conditions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, David Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Academics of the University of Westminster