The Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine - DSc (HM) is designed as a postgraduate course for those that have completed the Bachelor of Science in Holistic Medicine, or are already qualified in other CAM modalities, are medical doctors, chiropractors, osteopaths or naturopaths.

Each of these CAM modalities will gain the relevant exemptions based on their existing educational background.

For example, a medical doctor will gain exemption to the Anatomy and Physiology and Pathology and Disease courses; a Naturopath may gain exemption to these courses as well as the Naturopathic Medicine and some of the Nutritional courses, and so on.

This DSc in Holistic Medicine is unique in that it comprises of courses that are rarely found in schools and colleges of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). Most colleges and schools offering CAM courses will do so in one field or modality; i.e. degree courses in homeopathy, or in herbal medicine, or in naturopathy or acupuncture and so on.

When qualifying from these schools you will be an expert in only one modality of healing, but you will not have a broad base that encompasses many different areas of healing. This is the main advantage of the Da Vinci College of Holistic Medicine - it provides the practitioner or student with many different tools and protocols to use in clinical practice that go far beyond any one healing modality - it embraces the true premise of HOLISTIC MEDICINE.

A Modular System

Here is a summary of the curriculum for the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine - DSc (HM). Based on the fact that Anatomy and Physiology and Pathology has been covered in undergraduate courses, then there are only 9 further topics required to completion. Eight of these are from the compulsory list, and one topic is chosen from the electives - making 9 topics in total:

COMPULSORY LIST

ELECTIVES - choose ONE topic from the following: 

The Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine consists of many separate modular courses covering a whole spectrum of health topics - each of these modular courses is a stand-alone and can be taken as an individual Diploma Course with Certification. This encourages the student to implement this knowledge-base in clinical practice as soon as they have completed each Diploma course, as they will have the Certification to prove that they have passed these exams for the said course.

Summary of DSc (HM) Curriculum

The modular course structure based on distance-learning allows the student to work at their own pace while working elsewhere without having to disrupt family or working life. The student can even work while they are traveling as most of the course materials are in downloadable files that can be stored on the hard disc of the computer. There are hundreds of pages of reading material with each course.

There are also many interactive videos and documentaries to watch and you can even copy these directly to your laptop and watch them while on a plane. There are also hundreds of links to many other sources of helpful information - these courses have taken many years to write and develop and are at a cutting-edge level that is difficult to match. The courses should ideally be taken in sequential order to benefit from prerequisite knowledge required to build on. The College and its courses have been accredited by the Pastoral Medical Association in the USA, and the Complementary Medical Association (CMA) in the UK.

Expertise

It is very rare to find a College that takes all these modalities and more and puts them into a Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine course - this is the essence of this course - you will not only be studying homeopathy or herbal medicine or naturopathy, but in fact you will study enough of each to be able to practice as a competent Holistic Health practitioner, dealing with many health issues that using only one healing modality will not be able to help.

This is made possible because the Founder and Academic Dean of the DaVinci College of Holistic Medicine, Dr. George J Georgiou has been studying natural methods of health for over 25 years and has amassed degrees and diplomas in the biological sciences, clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy, Su Jok acupuncture, energy medicine, iridology, sclerology, live blood analysis, thermography, clinical psychology and clinical sexology, along with a lot more training in other modalities of healing, as well as many research interests and publications.

Not only did he spend a life-time studying all these topics in depth, but he has applied this knowledge by building a bespoke Holistic treatment centre called the Da Vinci Holistic Health Centre in Cyprus that uses all these modalities and more and sees patients from all over the world, specializing in the treatment of chronic disease. Students taking the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine will be able to spend time undertaking clinical work at this cutting-edge Holistic Centre as part of their requirements.

Course Completion

To gain maximal benefit from your studies, it is recommended that the student plan to take at least two, but preferably three courses per semester (4 chronological months). There are a total of 9 Diploma courses to complete making for approximately 2,000 physical hours of study. The average student should be able to complete all nine compulsory courses to be awarded the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine in about 12 - 18 months. A maximum of 60 months is allowed for completion for students with heavy work commitments.

If the Bachelor of Science in Holistic Medicine is completed, then the Doctoral degree can be completed in about one additional year.

Medical students usually study for just about 4,200 physical hours in the entirety of their course - most of the academic study is crammed into the first two years - they also have practical work on top of this. The Bachelor of Science in Holistic Medicine covers 14 courses which comes to a total of 2,800 hours (14 x 200 hours = 2,800). This means that 200 hours of study per course for each semester amounts to about 1.5 hours study per day.

If a student decides to go on to complete the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine immediately after the Bachelors of Science in Holistic Medicine, there will be a further three courses to complete (3 x 200 hours = 600 hours), along with a dissertation (400 hours), making a further 1,000 hours. This is added to the 3,000 hours of the BSc (HM) making a total of 4,000 hours. This is equivalent to just over 500 days of solid work - a lot can be learned in this time!

Clinical Practicuum

Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine students will have an opportunity to study with Dr. Georgiou at the Da Vinci Holistic Health Centre and will be able to get hands-on training in all aspects of the holistic healing arts. This will be the students opportunity to see the application of everything they have learned on real patients with real diseases.

There is also the flexibility of studying in other Holistic Centres closer to home, but these must be assessed by the College before being certified to accept students.

Dissertation

In order to complete the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine there is a dissertation based on empirical work that needs to be completed by the end of the course. This may be an extension of the dissertation that was completed for the Bachelors of Science in Holistic Medicine, or it may be a completely new topic. The goal is to bring some unique findings that are publishable, into the realm of CAM science. Medical doctors who have a strong research background can be exempt from the dissertation.

DSc (HM) Course Curriculum

In order to complete the Doctor of Science in Holistic Medicine, there are 8 topics that need to be completed, along with an additional course from the Electives - some may be exempt for those that have already covered these - see DSc Curriculum.