Simona Dragan is professor of internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Victor Babes and head of the clinic of cardiac prevention and rehabilitation of the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Timisoara, Romania. During her fellowship in medical education and research at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, she developed a special interest in integrative medicine. She was coordinator of three Leonardo da Vinci II projects for vocational training at EU standards for physiotherapy and phytotherapy and director of 5 grants funded by the Romanian Ministry of Research testing functional foods enriched with bioactive plant-derived antioxidants in metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes and breast cancer. She was coordinator for Romania of CAMbrella – a pan-European research network for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.