Ms. Handel has been a medical librarian at Beth Israel Medical Center for over twenty years, with a specialty in Integrative Medicine. She is co-author of the award winning book Alternative Medicine Resource Guide and has published articles, book chapters and taught professional-level classes on search techniques and resources in the field. Ms. Handel developed the Center's educational web site and their first online continuing medical education course on the Integrative Approaches to IBS. She has collaborated on many health web sites, including the Addiction Recovery Guide, Healing Chronic Pain and Healing Digestive Disorders. In 2006 Ms. Handel received a 2 1/2 year NIH grant to develop a multimedia patient education web site on the Integrative Approach to Chronic Diseases: Heart Disease, Diabetes and Chronic Pain.

Combining a 25-year private practice in movement re-education with her work as a medical librarian has given her a unique perspective on the therapeutic process. She believes the healing process can be significantly enhanced by access to authoritative and reliable health information. Treatment decisions can then be made based on the best available evidence, the in-depth knowledge of health care practitioners, and the patient's own sense of what is in accord with their needs and individual healing process. She has worked to assist both consumers and health care practitioners identify current high quality information in this field.

Content last modified on Jul 5, 2007