{{short description|American nephrologist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Josephine P. Briggs | image = Josephine-P-Briggs.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = <!-- {{birth date and age|1950|01|30|df=y}} --> | birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | fields = {{plainlist | * nephrology * }} | workplaces = {{plainlist | * Yale School of Medicine * LMU Munich * National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health }} | alma_mater = {{plainlist | * Radcliffe College * Harvard Medical School }} | thesis_title = | thesis_year = | known_for = {{plainlist | * * * * }} }} '''Josephine P. Briggs''' is an American nephrologist and director emeritus of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (formerly the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine), an agency of the National Institutes of Health. She is currently the editor-in-chief of the ''Journal of the American Society of Nephrology''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nccih.nih.gov/about/past-directors/Briggs |title=Josephine P. Briggs, M.D. |website=National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Briggs was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to a physicist father. She has two brothers. Her family moved to the United States when she was five, and she became an American citizen at age eleven. She excelled at math, physics and other sciences in high school.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://membercentral.aaas.org/blogs/member-spotlight/profile-josephine-briggs-leading-nih-effort-find-alternative-approaches | title=Member Spotlight: Josephine Briggs leading NIH alternative medicine program | work=American Association for the Advancement of Science | date=21 January 2011 | accessdate=10 February 2015 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211053841/http://membercentral.aaas.org/blogs/member-spotlight/profile-josephine-briggs-leading-nih-effort-find-alternative-approaches | archivedate=11 February 2015 }}</ref>
Briggs received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in 1966 in biology.<ref name="cv">{{cite web | url=https://nccih.nih.gov/sites/nccam.nih.gov/files/briggsCV.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211054214/https://nccih.nih.gov/sites/nccam.nih.gov/files/briggsCV.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | title=Josephine P. Briggs, M.D. CV | accessdate=10 February 2015}}</ref> She received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1970. She then completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in clinical nephrology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.<ref name=cv/> She did her postdoc at Yale School of Medicine and worked at LMU Munich for six years as a research scientist.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gewin|first1=Virginia|title=Josephine Briggs, director, US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland|journal=Nature|date=21 February 2008|volume=451|issue=7181|pages=1026|doi=10.1038/nj7181-1026a|doi-access=free}}</ref>
==Career== In 1985 Briggs joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, where she was a full professor in the department of nephrology from 1993 to 1997.<ref name=cv/> In 1997, she joined the National Institutes of Health as director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nccih.nih.gov/about/past-directors/briggs | title=Josephine P. Briggs, M.D. | work=NCCIH website | access-date=10 February 2015}}</ref> In 2006 she became a senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,<ref name=cv/> a position she held until 2008 when she was appointed director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nccih.nih.gov/news/2008/012408.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150211055805/https://nccih.nih.gov/news/2008/012408.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=February 11, 2015 | title=Josephine Briggs, M.D., Named Director of NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine | work=NCCIH website | date=24 January 2008 | accessdate=10 February 2015}}</ref> In October 2017, she retired from her position as director of the NCCIH; she was replaced by acting director David Shurtleff.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Statement on the retirement of Dr. Josie Briggs |date=2017-08-10 |url=https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-retirement-dr-josie-briggs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005073108/https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/statement-retirement-dr-josie-briggs |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 5, 2017 |language=en |last1=Collins |first1=Francis |access-date=2018-06-28 |website=National Institutes of Health (NIH)}}</ref>
==Views== As of 2009 Briggs did not use alternative medicine in her practice.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602139.html | title=Scientists Speak Out Against Federal Funds for Research on Alternative Medicine | newspaper=Washington Post | date=16 March 2009 | accessdate=10 February 2015 | author=Brown, David}}</ref> In 2010, a NCCAM-funded study was published which found that echinacea was not effective in the treatment of the common cold. Briggs reacted to the study by saying that the center does not intend to fund any more research into echinacea.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.foxnews.com/health/got-a-cold-study-says-echinacea-wont-help-much/ | title=Got a Cold? Study Says Echinacea Won't Help Much | work=Fox News | date=21 December 2010 | access-date=10 February 2015 | agency=Associated Press}}</ref> In 2012, Briggs told ''The Washington Post'' that massage appeared to be an effective treatment for back pain.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/massage-can-have-significant-benefit-for-muscle-pain-and-other-ills-studies-find/2012/07/30/gJQAM92uKX_story.html | title=Massage can have significant benefit for muscle pain and other ills, studies find | newspaper=Washington Post | date=30 July 2012 | accessdate=10 February 2015 | author=Butler, Carolyn}}</ref> In 2014, in response to an announcement that the US government would spend millions of dollars on studying pain in members of the military, Briggs said that "The need for non-drug treatment options [for pain] is a significant and urgent public health imperative".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-pledges-millions-to-study-ways-to-ease-soldiers-pain/ | title=U.S. pledges millions to study ways to ease soldiers' pain | work=CBS News | date=25 September 2014 | accessdate=11 February 2015 | author=Preidt, Robert}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tt3HeksAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao Josephine Briggs] at Google Scholar {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Josephine P.}} Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:Harvard Medical School alumni Category:American nephrologists Category:Women nephrologists Category:Living people Category:Alternative medicine researchers Category:University of Michigan faculty Category:National Institutes of Health people Category:Medical doctors from Toronto Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Medical journal editors Category:Year of birth missing (living people)