MASSAGE Magazine Readers’ Favorite Experts

Tiffany Field

Tiffany Field, Ph.D., a professor of pediatrics and psychiatry, began conducting research into the beneficial effects of healthy touch in 1982. In 1992 she established the Touch Research Institutes (TRI) at the University of Miami School of Medicine, with a startup grant from Johnson & Johnson. The research that put Field, and TRI, on the map showed that massage caused premature infants to gain more weight than their non-massaged peers. That study was published in 1988. Today, more than 100 studies and 350 medical-journal articles later, Field is recognized as the premier expert in, and advocate for, touch research.