Bhaswati has been working in complementary medical education for over
20 years. As a licensed primary care physician practicing in
inner-city New York, she is board-certified in holistic medicine and
preventive medicine. Bhaswati serves as Director of the Dinacharya
Institute in New York, teaching workshops, seminars, and a training
programs for Ayurvedic Health Coaches. She is the former Director of
Research and the former Director of the Division of Complementary &
Alternative Medicines (CAM) at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. She is a
Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at Weill Medical
College of Cornell University in New York.
Her academic training includes a baccalaureate (BA) in the Biological
Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania; a masters degree
in pharmacology and neuroscience from Columbia University with 6 years
of graduate work in biotechnology, biomedical sciences and laboratory
work toward a PhD; a masters degree in international public health
(MPH) from Harvard University; and a medical doctorate (MD) from Rush
Medical College in Chicago. Her residency training in family practice
at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital and in community & preventive
medicine at Mount Sinai has trained her to work with the underserved.
In addition, she has several certifications in holistic healing arts.
Bhaswati’s holistic training comes through numerous formal courses and the traditional apprenticeship format known as
gurukala
still practiced by traditional healers in Tibet, India, China, Nepal,
Brazil, Nigeria, and El Salvador. Before medical school, she was
engaged in ten years of biomedical research, active international
public health work and consulting projects in medical education,
biotechnology, medical publishing, and management on Wall Street in
investment banking.
Alongside formal schooling, Bhaswati has maintained an ongoing
pursuit of knowledge in traditional medicines, studying formally under
Drs. Ted Kaptchuk, David Eisenberg, Rachel Naomi Remen, Ben Kligler,
Ellen Tattelman, Jeffrey Bland, Norman Farnsworth, Deepak Chopra, PR
Krishnakumar, Joseph Helms, Vivek Shanbhag, Aparna Bapat, Vasudha
Gupta, and her academic mentor, the late human rights activist Jonathan
Mann. Bhaswati accepted the vows of
vidyaarambham, the
traditional acceptance into ayurvedic apprenticeship from the great
VaidyaBhooshanam Raghavan Thirumulpad in 2001, and goes to India
annually to study. She incorporates traditional medical systems into
her clinical practices, where she provides holistic medical care for
the underserved as well as for insured patients, using herbs,
nutrition, exercise counseling, ayurveda, energywork, mind-body
medicine, homeopathy, yoga, and aromatherapy.
Bhaswati is the
recipient of a 1998 American Holistic Medical Association national
award. Bhaswati worked at the Office of Alternative Medicine in 1994.
She was selected to the NIH Advisory Panel of the Complementary Medical
Education Task Force in 1996. From 1995 until 1998, she served as the
national co-coordinator of the Humanistic Medicine task force of AMSA.
She was selected from over 4000 graduates as the Commencement Graduate
Orator at Harvard University in 1993, where she received international
coverage for her outspoken views alongside then Joint Chiefs of Staff
Colin Powell in a speech on blind traditions and the need for
insightful healing as we shape policies. She received the 2004 AMA
Leadership Award for her work in holistic medicine and international
health. In 2008, she received the award for Outstanding Global Service
to Ayurveda from the Arogyadham Foundation in Uttar Pradesh, India.
Bhaswati has written several creative and technical works in
textbooks and journals and magazines focusing on educating and healing
the healers. She served as the founding medical director of
InnerDoorway, the premier publishing company for peer-reviewed medical
journals in alternative medicines, now known as InnoVision. She served
as author and founding co-Principal Investigator and co-author of
EDCAM, a NIH-funded grant to AMSA that successfully created a
curriculum with 96 experts integrating holistic medicine into medical
schools in the US. Bhaswati served for 5 years on the Board of Trustees
of the American Holistic Medical Association. She has served as the CAM
expert as a contributor to Dorland’s Medical Dictionary and as the
chair of the CAM Advisory Council of the Elsevier medical publishing
group. She was the Education Director at Kerala Ayurveda Academy,
2006-2007. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of NAMA, the
National Ayurvedic Medical Association of the USA. She also serves on
the Steering Committee of the International Working Groups on Ayurveda
sponsored by the Government of India, Department of AYUSH under the
Ministry of Health. She is the chair of the AUSAC, Ayurved-US Advisory
Council, sponsored by the Embassy of India in Washington DC, under the
auspices of the Department of AYUSH, which is working on a paper on the
Status of Ayurveda in the USA. Bhaswati is currently creating a visual
journey in holistic medicine through her filmmaking company,
Betel Nut Productions. Her work has been featured in a documentary called Healers: Journey
into Ayurveda, that premiered worldwide in July 2003 on The Discovery
Channel.
She continues to serve the holistic community by actively lecturing
and providing workshops internationally and continues to engage in
medical education projects, public health consulting assignments, and
service projects internationally.
History of GoodMedicine Works.
GMW was started as the solo practice of Dr. Bhattacharya in 2001. She
has combined into clinical practice her experience internationally on
medical missions, grant-funded community outreach and health services
research, medical education, hospital-based and clinic-based practice,
holistic health counseling, laboratory research, policy development and
traditional apprenticeship in learning the practice of true healing
medicine.
Through her studies and work, she has learned that medicine is only
medicine when it WORKS....