The Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) was founded in July 2011, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard Medical School. Its purpose is to bring together researchers who are examining the placebo response and the impact of medical ritual, the patient-physician relationship and the power of imagination, hope, trust, persuasion, compassion and empathic witnessing in the healing process. PiPS research is translational, spanning molecular biology, neuroscience and clinical care, as well as interdisciplinary, ranging from the basic sciences to psychology to the history of medicine. The program hopes to soon expand its efforts to include health policy, with the ultimate goal of improving health care systems by elucidating, quantifying and reaffirming the more intangible and humanistic aspects of medical care.
PiPS researchers include many of the founding members of the field of placebo studies. They are drawn from Harvard University’s teaching hospitals, as well as its Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Articles written by PiPS researchers have been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, PLoS Medicine, Archives of General Psychiatry, American Psychologist, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Science, Journal of Neuroscience, Social Science & Medicine, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and Psychosomatic Medicine. The team's research has also been featured on ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, HBO, NPR, BBC television and radio, Forbes, Slate Magazine, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, New York Review of Books, Newsweek and Time Magazine.
PiPS is led by the following members of the Harvard faculty: