Gerard Bodeker
Professor Gerard Bodeker holds clinical and research appointments in the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the Department of Primary Health Care in the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford. He is Chairman of the Oxford-based Global Initiative For Traditional Systems of Health and holds a full Professorship of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York, currently on an Adjunct basis.
Widely known for his work in wellness and traditional, complementary & alternative medicine, Prof Bodeker has been the Chairman of the Commonwealth Group on Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He is also co-founder of the WHO-affiliated Research Initiative on Traditional Antimalarial Methods and is currently serving in an advisory capacity to the United Nations University’s Education for Sustainable Development Project where he is working on two projects in Indonesia.
Building on two decades of work in collaboration with the Traditional Medicine Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, Prof Bodeker is working with Vietnamese and European colleagues to create a national herbal medicine project designed for national and international markets. In addition, he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for Eu Yan Sang, a Chinese herbal corporation headquartered in Singapore, and is working with the company on a book on nutritional and lifestyle approaches from traditional Chinese medicinal theory.
Prof Bodeker has worked on traditional medicine and medicinal plant conservation for agencies including the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation. He was also the editor for WHO Global Atlas on Traditional and Complementary Medicine. He has published a book with Malaysian colleagues on health and wellness traditions of Malaysia and is working with Vietnamese colleagues on a book on traditional Vietnamese medicine.
His other projects include research on refugee use of traditional medicine at Thai Burma border, and working with Oxford & other colleagues on an EU funded project to develop research capacity on medicinal plants and herbal medicines in Africa. He is also working with the Qatar Foundation researching wellness traditions of the Islamic world.
Research areas
• International public policy on traditional, complementary and alternative medicine
• Research on wellness traditions, especially of Asia & the Middle East
• Study of patterns of use of complementary medicine in the UK and of traditional medicine use in developing countries, particularly for malaria and HIV/AIDS
Selected publications
• Bodeker G, Neumann C. (2012). “Revitalization and development of Karen traditional medicine for sustainable refugee health services at the Thai-Burma border”. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. 10,1, 1556-2948
• Willcox M & Bodeker G. ‘The ethics of improving African traditional medical practice: A response’, Acta Tropica, vol. 115, no. 1, pp. 163-164, 2010.
• (with Bhushan Patwardhan) ‘Ayurvedic Genomics: Establishing a Genetic Basis for Mind–Body Typologies’ Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine – J ALTERN COMPLEMENT MED , vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 571-576, 2008.
• Bodeker G & Burford G. Traditional, Complementary & Alternative Medicine: Public Health & Policy Perspectives. Imperial College Press, 2007.
• (with Mark Dvorak-Little) ‘AIDS Control in India: A Perspective from the Traditional Medicine Sector’, Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine – J ALTERN COMPLEMENT MED , vol. 12, no. 6, pp. 501-503, 2006.
• Bodeker et al. World Health Organization Global Atlas on Traditional, Complementary & Alternative Medicine. WHO Geneva 2005.
