Groundbreaking physician, Mehmet Oz, M.D., cited by the New York Times as the most accomplished cardiothoracic surgeon in the country, invites hands-on-healing into the operating room at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center to work with the patient and participate as a part of the operating-room team as he performs surgery.
-Chip Brown.  “The Experiments of Dr. Oz.” New York Times Magazine
(July 30, 1995): 21-23.

“Reiki is a precise method of connecting universal energy with the body’s innate powers of healing.  This hands-on-healing art, a powerful adjunct to conventional therapeutic modalities, fuels the body’s homeostatic mechanisms and thereby assists in the restoration of balance on the physical, mental, and emotional levels.  Because this life-force energy supports optimal development and fulfillment, Reiki promotes the highest healing good for all living things.  The biological intelligence that marshals the body’s resources to heal a cut finger, mend a broken bone, help the lungs to breathe, or ease the transition into death is amplified by Reiki.  Thus, as a healing modality it fits perfectly into the new paradigm of health emerging in Western medicine, a paradigm that includes mind/body awareness and prevention techniques.”
-Libby Barnett and Maggie Chambers, “Reiki Energy Medicine,” 1996.

In a study conducted as part of her master’s thesis at Sonoma State University Wendy Wetzel, R.N. found that “In subjects receiving First Degree Reiki training, there was a significant change in the oxygen-carrying capability [of blood] within a twenty four-hour period [following initiation] as reflected by measurement of hemoglobin and hematocrit values, significant at the P=.01 levels.”  The study concluded that “Reiki seems a natural adjunct to nursing care...it can reduce the experience of burnout and job-related stress.”
-Wendy S Wetzel. “Reiki Healing: A Physiologic Perspective and Implications for Nursing.” Thesis submitted to Sonoma State University, 1988.

“The issue, however, is not how or why alternative modalities work but that they work.”
-David Eisenberg.  “Unconventional Medicine in the United States.”
New England Journal of Medicine 328, no.4 (1993), 246-52.

Even though Reiki is still not covered routinely by most insurance companies, in 1991 Libby Barnett was approached by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of New Hampshire with a proposal to provide coverage for Reiki sessions for a 23-year-old diabetic patient with multiple hospital emergency admissions.  A conference was held and attended by the patient’s psychiatrist, social worker, primary-care physician and nurse practitioner. In presenting the patient’s history it was noted that Reiki helped stabilize her blood sugar levels, soothe her neuropathy, and manage the emotional aspects of her diabetes, and that she had fewer crises when she maintained regular Reiki appointments.  The insurance company’s decision to cover the Reiki sessions continued to help stabilize the patient’s condition, reducing the number of hospital emergency admissions.