first chapter of the LDLP many to follow over the weekend

Dear Reader, dear Student of Anthroposophy with Emphasis on Health and Disease and Anything associated with it It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this integrative course of Anthroposophic Health Studies and present to you a summary of the goals and contents of our website anthroposophic-healthstudies.org which was (and will be again) offered at the level of a post-graduate long distance learning program (LDLP) by a few colleges and
universities in Europe and the US. I am the director of the Program and have studied Western orthodox, mean-stream, evidence based medicine but since my time as a medical student at the University of Amsterdam, I also studied parallel and on my own effort acupuncture, homeopathy, natural medicine and Anthroposophically-Extended Medicine. To be honest, in Anthroposophic Medicine, I found the best way to combine a very holistic and spiritual approach to health and disease and satisfied me
most as an MD and a PhD at the bedside of my patient, in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as well as teaching and conducting research. One could also say that Anthroposophically Extended Medicine is a perfect example of Translational Medicine (from bench-to-bed).
The founders of Anthroposophic medicine were Rudolf Steiner, PhD (1861-1925) and Ita Wegman, MD (1876-1943).
Today, thousands of Anthroposophically-extended hospitals, day care centers, and doctors in private practice around the world, offer this approach in medicine and in all specialties and subspecialties.

Rudolf Steiner, PhD, (1861-1925)
Rudolf Steiner, PhD, (1861-1925)
Ita Wegman, MD. (1876-1943)
Ita Wegman, MD. (1876-1943)


Ita Wegman was a Dutch physician, born in Indonesia (Dutch Indies) and who studied medicine in Zurich (Switzerland) as at that time and around Europe, women were supposed to become nurses but not medical doctors. The only country in Europe at that time which allowed – to some extend – women to study becoming a medical doctor was Switzerland and specifically the University of Zurich. In my opinion, over the course, you will be introduced to the most inclusive, holistic and spiritual approach to health and disease (and disease prevention) and I hope that the contents and how one applies them in health and disease will be discussed and shown. My team and I hope that these contents will be an eye- opener and as much satisfying to you as they are for us.
Robert Gorter, MD, PhD. October 7th , 2024