Robert B. Saper, MD MPH
Professor, Family Medicine
Biography
Dr. Saper is the Director of Integrative Medicine for the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine and Professor in the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Saper attended Brandeis University for his undergraduate education. After graduating Harvard Medical School in 1988, he completed a family medicine residency and chief residency at UCSF from 1988-92 and was in private practice for 8 years in the San Francisco Bay area. While in California he worked closely with Dr. Ornish’s Program for Reversal of Heart Disease. In 2000 he moved back to the Boston area and retooled professionally by entering the three year NIH-funded Integrative Medicine Research Fellowship at Harvard Medical School which included an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. As a fellow, he published the first nationally representative survey of yoga use in the United States.
In 2004 he joined the Boston University faculty and medical staff of Boston Medical Center where he directs the Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities. The mission of the Program is to bring evidence-based integrative medicine approaches to all, regardless of ability to pay. Soon after arriving at Boston Medical Center, he received a five year Academic Career Development Grant from the NIH National Center for Complementary Alternative Medicine. With this support, he published a pilot study of yoga for chronic low back pain in predominantly low income minorities recruited from federally qualified community health centers. In 2010 Dr. Saper was funded by the NIH to conduct a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness and cost of yoga, physical therapy, and education for back pain in 320 adults. He is also funded by NIH to study yoga for back pain in veterans. Other major areas of research include the safety and efficacy of traditional Indian herbal medicines. Dr. Saper is the Past Chair of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health.
Education
- Harvard University, MD
- Harvard School of Public Health, MPH
- Brandeis University, BA
Publications
- Published on 2/20/2025
Roseen EJ, Bussières A, Reichman R, Bora C, Trieu J, Austad K, Williams C, Fischer RA, Parrilla D, Laird LD, LaValley M, Evans RL, Saper RB, Morone NE. A multi-level implementation strategy to increase adoption of chiropractic care for low back pain in primary care clinics: a randomized stepped-wedge pilot study protocol. Chiropr Man Therap. 2025 Feb 20; 33(1):9. PMID: 39979943.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/4/2024
Tankha H, Gaskins D, Shallcross A, Rothberg M, Hu B, Guo N, Roseen EJ, Dombrowski S, Bar J, Warren R, Wilgus H, Tate P, Goldfarb J, Drago VG, Saper R. Effectiveness of Virtual Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Nov 04; 7(11):e2442339. PMID: 39485352.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/15/2024
Alpert JM, Pfoh E, Criswell V, Tang MC, Stanley EE, Hong S, Saper R, Yudelevich Blumrosen E, Rothberg MB. Qualitative Analysis of Patients' and Physicians' Attitudes and Behaviors Toward Billing Patient Portal Messages. Ann Intern Med. 2024 Dec; 177(12):1734-1736. PMID: 39401435.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/23/2024
Spurgeon E, Saper R, Alexopoulos A, Allendorfer JB, Bar J, Caldwell J, Cervenka M, Darling S, Dombrowski S, Gallagher L, Lazar S, Modlo E, Perko J, Sajatovic M, Tilahun B, Yardi N, Najm I. Proceedings of the 2022 "Lifestyle Intervention for Epilepsy (LIFE)" symposium hosted by Cleveland Clinic. Epilepsia Open. 2024 Oct; 9(5):1981-1996. PMID: 39177045.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/1/2024
Taylor S, Sachdeva S, Darling S, Arrotta K, Gallagher L, Supan A, Shipta G, Perko J, Bar J, James J, Petschek I, Lioi A, Kundu S, Ellison L, Bekris LM, Willard B, Sangwan N, Mata I, Fernandez H, Katzan I, Conway D, Pillai J, Leverenz J, Busch RM, Floden D, Saper R, Barnard J, Machado A, Najm I, Punia V. Multidisciplinary lifestyle interventions for neurological disorders during the Silent phase (MINDS) study: a multi-omics randomized controlled trial protocol. Neurol Res Pract. 2024 Aug 01; 6(1):39. PMID: 39085927.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/20/2024
Patil SJ, Bhayani V, Yoshida Y, Bushweller L, Udoh EO, Todorov I, Saper R, Stange KC, Bolen S. Lay advisor interventions for hypertension outcomes: A Systematic Review, Meta-analysis and a RE-AIM evaluation. Front Med (Lausanne). 2024; 11:1305190. PMID: 38831986.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/2/2024
Roseen EJ, Joyce C, Winbush S, Pavco-Luttschwager N, Morone NE, Saper RB, Bartels S, Patel KV, Keysor JJ, Bean JF, Laird LD. Primary care barriers and facilitators to nonpharmacologic treatments for low back pain: A qualitative pilot study. PM R. 2024 May 02. PMID: 38695321.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/27/2024
Nagaswami MV, Saper RB, Streeter CC, Uebelacker L, Ding G, Dalvie A, Norton R, Mischoulon D, Nyer MB. Yoga-Based Interventions in Low-Income Populations: A Scoping Review. J Integr Complement Med. 2024 Aug; 30(8):735-752. PMID: 38536707.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/5/2024
Joyce CT, Roseen EJ, Smith CN, Patterson CG, McDonough CM, Hurstak E, Morone NE, Beneciuk J, Stevans JM, Delitto A, Saper RB. A Cluster Analysis of Initial Primary Care Orders for Patients with Acute Low Back Pain. J Am Board Fam Med. 2024 Jan 05; 36(6):986-995. PMID: 38182423.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/14/2023
Uebelacker LA, Braun TD, Taylor LE, Saper R, Baldwi M, Abrantes A, Tremont G, Toribio A, Kirshy S, Koch R, Lorin L, Van Noppen D, Anderson B, Roseen EJ, Stein MD. Evaluation of intervention components to maximize yoga practice among people with chronic pain taking opioid agonist therapy: A factorial experiment using the multiphase optimization strategy framework. Contemp Clin Trials. 2024 Feb; 137:107411. PMID: 38103784.
Read at: PubMed
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