Brian Berman

Brian M. Berman is a physician and professor of family medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, known above all for research into acupuncture. He received his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and completed residencies at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of California, Los Angeles. Appointed assistant professor at Maryland in 1991, he became associate professor in 1997, full professor in 2000 and was awarded tenure in 2003. In 1991 he founded the university's Center for Integrative Medicine, where he is now professor emeritus, and in 2007 he founded the Institute for Integrative Health, later renamed the Nova Institute for Health. In 2010 he published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine recommending acupuncture for lower back pain, a conclusion that was criticized in Forbes by Steven Salzberg. The National Institutes of Health named his centre a Research Center of Excellence under his direction.