Ian Coulter is codirector of the RAND Research Across Complementary and Integrative Health Institutions (REACH) Center, a senior health policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, professor emeritus at UCLA, and research professor at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He has more than 40 years of experience conducting both qualitative and quantitative research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine (IM) and has published over 200 articles and books. Recent NIH grants include the context effects on the health encounter, a Center of Excellence grant to study the appropriateness of care in CAM, a grant to study the use of Crowdsourcing with CAM patients, a DoD grant to conduct comparative effectiveness trials of chiropractic in military facilities; and evaluation of the creation, implementation, and evaluation of health policies in Health Affairs. Coulter was successful in securing a gift to create the endowed RAND/Samueli Chair in Integrative Medicine and a gift to establish the RAND Center for Collaborative Research in Complementary and Integrative Health.
Coulter holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the London School of Economics & Political Science, and an M.A. honors and B.A. in sociology from the University of Canterbury. He also received an honorary doctorate in humanities from the Southern California University of Health Sciences; was a Pew Fellow at the RAND/UCLA Center for Health Policy Study from which he received a certificate in health policy analysis; and has a diploma in educational management from the Institute of Educational Management, Harvard University.
Selected Publications
Coulter ID, "Comparative Effectiveness Research: Does the Emperor Have Clothes?" Alternative Therapies Health Med, 17(2), 2011
Coulter ID, Khorsan R, Crawford C, Hsiao AF, "Integrative Health Care Under Review: An Emerging Field.," J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 33(9), 2010
Coulter ID, Lester P, Yarvis J, "Social Fitness," Military Medicine, 175(8), 2010
Coulter ID, Hilton L, Ryan G, Ellison M, Rhodes H., "Trials and Tribulations on the Road to Implementing Intergrative Medicine in a Hospital Setting," Health Sociology Review, 17(4), 2008
Coulter, I.D., Crawford, C., Hurwitz, E.L., Vernon, H., Khorsan, R., Booth, M.S. and Herman, P.M, "Manipulation and mobilization for treating chronic low back pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis. ," The Spine Journal, 18(5), 2018
Coulter ID, Herman PM, Ryan GW, Hilton LG, Hays RD, "Determining Appropriate Care in the Era of Patient-Centered Care and Rising Health Care Costs.," Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 24(3), 2018
Coulter ID, Crawford C, Vernon H, Hurwitz EL, Khorsan R, Suttorp Booth M, Herman PM., "Manipulation and mobilization for treating chronic non-specific neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis for an appropriateness panel," Pain Physician , 22(2), 2019
Ian Douglass Coulter, Gery Wayne Ryan, Lisa Sachiko Kraus, Lea Xenakis, Lara Green Hilton, "A method for deconstructing the health encounter in CAM: The social context. ," Journal of Complementary Medicine Research, 10(2), 2019