By Duke Medicine News and Communications

NEW YORK -- Ralph Snyderman, M.D., chancellor for health affairs at Duke University Medical Center and CEO of Duke University Health System, is the inaugural recipient of the Bravewell Leadership Award.

The award recognizes innovators of integrative medicine for their efforts to transform the culture of health care by establishing better methods of treating the whole person -- mind, body and spirit.

The award, sponsored by the Minneapolis-based Philanthropic Collaborative for Integrative Medicine, confers a prize of $100,000. It was presented by Walter Cronkite at a ceremony held at the Regent Wall Street Hotel on Thursday, Nov. 13.

Snyderman plans to use the award to further the area of "prospective health planning," an initiative currently underway at Duke Medical Center.

"I am so honored to be the first recipient of the Bravewell Leadership award," Snyderman said. "I was very pleased to be selected as a nominee and had outstanding company in my fellow nominees. The field of integrative medicine continues to grow rapidly and I plan to continue my support of this important area of health care not only at Duke but at other centers throughout the U.S."

The Philanthropic Collaborative for Integrative Medicine develops and implements initiatives that are designed to strategically advance the field of integrative medicine. The Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, a group of 18 academic health centers in the United States, including Duke Medical Center, is one of their largest benefactors.