Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
www.pharmpress.com/fact
Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2004; 9: 186
Harley Goldberg is the director of Complementary and Alternative Medicine at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, USA, as well as the director for Spine Care Services there. His clinical practice is now in spine care and CAM, and he is the Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Director of Spine Care Services at the Kaiser Permanente San Jose, California, Santa Teresa Medical Center. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine, as well as of the American Osteopathic Board of Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. His clinical appointment at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is in Family and Community Medicine, and he collaborates with the faculty at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF in a variety of research activities.
Prior to attending osteopathic medical school, he was trained in Gestalt therapy, herbal traditional therapies, massage and manipulative therapies, yoga and numerous other CAM approaches.
He lives with his wife Miriam in the mountains in Santa Cruz, California.
Q What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
HG: Clinically: helping to relieve a person’s suffering; administratively: creating systems to make that easy and efficient; in research: discovering what works, how, when and for whom.
Q What stimulates your creativity?
HG: Clinically: making the diagnosis, explaining it to the patient; administratively: helping people work together; in research design: asking the right question in a way that gives a usable answer.
Q What is the greatest danger to CAM?
HG: Closed minds – both adversaries and advocates.
Q Which form of CAM would you refuse to use?
HG: Anything that is not safe or useful at the time.
Q What does your mother-in-law think about you working in CAM?
HG: She’s thrilled … but indiscriminate. However, my mother is more thrilled, and more indiscriminate.
Q If you had not entered your current profession, what would you have liked to do?
HG: Marine biology: I love the water and the sea. I would have loved to help promote ecological balance by focusing on the ocean ecosystems, and been able to play in and on the water at the same time.
Q What is your biggest regret?
HG: Hurting friends and spending too much time at work.
Q Which do you believe is the most over-rated virtue?
HG: Obedience.
Q Which word do you overuse most?
HG: Sorry.
Q How do you relax?
HG: Yoga, meditation, sex, sleep, movies, friends.
Q If you were a car, what make would you be?
HG: A BMW: quick, responsive and comfortable. But I was raised a Volkswagen, although I have to admit I’m having a blast with my Volvo C70 convertible here in California.
Q Why do you think people like you?
HG: I’m kind and I tell the truth.
