Bastyr University

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  Feb-March, 2005  by Jule Klotter

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Having completed 25 years of operation, Bastyr University continues to grow and expand. The university now offers undergraduate degrees in acupuncture and Oriental medicine, nutrition, herbal sciences, health psychology, and in exercise science and wellness. Graduate programs include naturopathic medicine, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, nutrition, and a joint degree from Leadership Institute of Seattle (LIOS) and Bastyr School of Applied Behavioral Science. All of the programs have been fully accredited by the appropriate professional accrediting boards. The school has recently added two new graduate programs: a 3-year acupuncture and Oriental medicine doctoral degree, offering a specialty in oncology, and a new master's program that combines nutrition and clinical health psychology into one degree. The nutrition-psychology program is the first of its kind in the US and will lead to licensure as a mental health counselor who is equipped to address eating disorders as well as nutrition.

Over the next two decades, Bastyr intends to expand its physical size as well, according to The Bastyr University President's Report, dated March 2004. The school plans to buy the Kenmore, Washington, campus property and double its current enrollment of 1200 students. Construction on the first of 300+ housing units for students and staff will begin in 2006. Other proposed additions include botanical and food production gardens, a teaching greenhouse, a wellness and conference center for public education, indoor botanical atriums, and a central meadow. In addition, Bastyr plans to open a campus in California, which recently began licensing naturopathic physicians.

Bastyr University's commitment to natural health care and research is felt throughout the Seattle area. In addition to its academic programs, Bastyr University runs the Bastyr Center for Natural Health (which includes the university's teaching clinic), servicing over 36,000 patient visits in a year. The university is also investigating the possibility of opening a collaborative women's health center that would combine conventional and natural medicine approaches in a comprehensive healthcare program for women. Basic scientific research and applied clinical research in the field of women's health would also occur at the center. Bastyr University now collaborates on research projects and clinical care initiatives with several of Seattle's leading healthcare organizations, including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Virginia Mason, Group Health Cooperative, Harborview, and Northwest Hospital.

Research projects, as of the March 2004 report, include a randomized trial involving the use of massage and meditation in end-of-life care of cancer and AIDS patients, a study on the influence of menopause on body composition and fat distribution in Caucasian and African-American women, and several studies on individual botanicals. In addition, Jennifer Lovejoy, PhD, Bastyr's nutrition department chair, has received a federal grant to develop a behavioral weight loss program for patients with adult-onset diabetes.

Bastyr University. The President's Report March 2004

briefed by Jule Klotter

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group