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background resources in PDF |
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some CAM/IM publication links |
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Written by John Weeks
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Sunday, 14 December 2008 |
September 2, 2010
The comment period for the draft 2011-2015 Strategic Plan for the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is
open until September 30, 2010. The draft was posted August 30. This
article provides an outline of key points in the 34-page NCCAM document
including, as the plan's authors organize them: 4 conclusions from the
team's landscape assessment; 3 overarching goals; 5 guideposts for
keeping on track; 4 frames for priority-setting; and 5 strategic
objectives. This, the 3rd NCCAM strategic plan, is the first from the
era of Josephine Briggs, MD as director. There is fine stuff here to
celebrate relative to how challenges are described, real-world research
advocated, and an intriguing new focus advocated for examining the
potential of complementary therapies and integrative practices in
health-focused care and health promotion. I conclude with 5 reasons for
excitement and 3 areas of concern. Kudos to Briggs and her team. More
August 31. 2010
Readers
from multiple stakeholders in integrative medicine responded to the
findings
on integrative naturopathic medicine entitled "Model Whole Practice
Study Finds
Treatment by Naturopathic
Doctors Effective & Cost-Saving for Canada Post Employees with
Cardiovascular Disease." The project, led by Dugald Seely, BSc, ND, MSc
and Patricia Herman, MS, ND, PhD, was quickly recognized as useful in
outreach to employers, policy makers, the mainstream delivery system and
clinicians themselves. Some readers merely exulted. Here are comments
received from university president James Winterstein, DC, employer consultant Chris Skisak, naturopathic oncology specialist Chad Aschtgen, ND, FABNO, hospital COO Richard Gannotta, NP, DHA, FACHE,
North Carolina licensing leader Susan Delaney, ND, holistic doctor
Kjersten Gmeiner, MD, Israeli hospital mind-body coordinator Nimrod
Sheinman, ND and Foundations Project director Pamela Snider, ND. More
August 28, 2010
Lori
Knutson, RN, HN-BC on the importance of clinical interests in federal
panels and health coaching; Mitch Stargrove, ND, LAc on Consumer Reports'
"Dirty Dozen" supplements; Kjersten Gmeiner, MD on RWJF's sobering
inter-professional education project; Vanessa Esteves, MBA, ND
responding to Margaret Beeson, ND with a recommended policy for
practitioners selling supplements in their offices; Daniel Redwood, DC
and Beth Sommers, PhD, LAc on the negative comments from Integrator readers toward CMS head Don Berwick, MD; Dana Ullman, MPH on why Oxford Journals let go of eCam;
Kathie Swift, MS, RD, LDN on the changing dietetics landscape; and
Andree Sudoo on antagonism toward the Clayton School from licensed NDs. More
August 26, 2010
The American Association
of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), the national professional
association for the nation's 4000 naturopathic physicians, celebrated
its 25th anniversary conference in Portland, Oregon in August. This
report offers snapshots of the profession at a challenging juncture.
Included here are: perspectives of modern elders Jared Zeff and Joe
Pizzorno; budget issues amidst a declining economy and advancing public interest; research report from Dugald Seely and Patricia Herman on the
most useful whole practice outcomes the profession has developed;
election of Michael Cronin, after a battle, to AANP president-elect
post; announcement of Bastyr University's plans for a new California
campus; clinical leader Mona Morstein's challenge to keynoter Josephine
Briggs, NIH NCCAM's director; House of Delegates action; kick-off for a
new Naturopathic Physicians Research Institute led by Carlo Calabrese;
meeting of senior editors on the Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine
project; and some commentary. More
August 22, 2010
Preliminary results from a randomized controlled pragmatic trial of the whole practice
of naturopathic medicine for Canada Post employees
with elevated cardiovascular risk
found treatment by integrative naturopathic doctors to be both
effective and cost-saving. Naturopathic treatment produced an overall $1025 cost benefit per participant. The results were reported by Dugald Seely,
BSc, ND, MSc and economist Patricia Herman, MS, ND, PhD, on August 12, 2010
at the conference of the American Association of Naturopathic
Physicians. The methods for researching this whole practice,
individualized treatment are a model for all integrative practitioners,
whether integrative MDs/DOs, broad scope DCs, AOM practitioners or
other multi-modal care-givers for whom reductive trials fail to capture
their practices. The model provides critical information for healthcare decision makers. For many in the naturopathic profession, the
outcomes are celebrated as a potential game-changer in that profession's efforts to
expand inclusion of their services by employers, public agencies and
insurers. More
August 18, 2010
The emerging field of inter-professional
education (IPE) is viewed by many as a chief contributor to the kind of
optimal integration needed to most enhance patient care. The integrative
practice fields tend to embrace this trend as part of the necessary
transformation of health care practice. Yet a report from a Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation project that merely sought to create better team care
between nurses and MDs is deeply sobering. What does it say about
integrating medical doctors and nurses with chiropractors and
naturopathic physicians, for instance? Are we up to taking on this
transformational challenge? Or have we all been, as is sometimes
wondered, smoking something? More
Issue
#78
-August 6, 2010
August 6, 2010
The AMA's resolution in favor
of discrimination against other providers as amended ... Licensed
midwives take one from OB-GYNs in New York ... Legislation introduced to
get DCs into US Public Health Service ... Samueli Institute links with
Joint Chiefs of Staff for magazine supplement on "Total Force Fitness"
... True North shares paradigm with MGMA group ... Cavallo Point
hotel-spa and integrative center opens with Bradly Jacobs, MD, MPH in
key role ... Massage therapists beat back nasty allegations from local
police to protect new law in California ... New integrative dietetics
practice group in the American Dietetics Association ...
Author-clinician Ilene Serlin, PhD makes headway in introducing whole
health practices at APA ... University of Chicago becomes 45th member of
the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine ...
Bastyr now home to a leading midwifery school and Simkin Center doula
training ... Mail order Clayton College shuts doors, to delight of
naturopathic doctors ... 6th IN-CAM Research Symposium in November 2010
... Group Health Institute team identifies diverse positive outcomes
from CAM-IM not typically captured in studies ... Research finds health
in "forest bathing" ... PMG Data Services purchases Innovision ...
Holistic Primary Care marks 10th year of publication ... Consumer Reports blasts "dirty dozen" of dietary supplements; Blumenthal responds ... Natural Foods Merchandiser
reports modest growth in industry in 2009 ... Briggs and NCCAM in media
whipsaw ... Comments on Krakow's "alternative medicine as a free market
approach" ... Lewis Bazakos, DC given another significant award, this
from New York Chiropractic College ... More
July 31, 2010
Duke Health Raleigh Hospital COO Richard
J. Gannotta, NP, DHA discovered via a data search that the literature
is exceedingly thin on inpatient integrative medicine programs. He
wanted data on how programs are faring in the 3 critical areas of
clinical effectiveness, patient satisfaction and, most importantly,
financial performance. Gannotta identified 8 programs and assembled
a research team through which they engaged structured interviews with
the clinical and business leaders. The results are published here, in
full, as Perceptions of Medical Directors and Hospital Executives Regarding the Value of Inpatient Integrative Medicine Programs. As Gannotta and his team noted, "the
number of responses
associated with financial performance and depth of those responses
could be an
indicator of participant concern as it relates to program vulnerability
and
sustainability in uncertain economic times." This is a useful look
inside the mind and experience of integrative medicine integration in
the pioneering hospitals with inpatient programs. More
July 27, 2010
The Integrator advocacy
of the controversial Donald Berwick, MD for director of the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sparked outspoken pushback from 3
readers: Minnesota-based integrative clinic leader Chris Foley, MD,
former American College for the Advancement in Medicine president Ron
Hoffman, MD and consultant Cindy Krueger, MPH. Opposition tended to
break on ideologic lines. Is support of Berwick out of touch with the
integrative practice community? Interestingly, Berwick's nomination is blasted by a leading
anti-alternative medicine blogger. I give their push-back a little
pushback. There is evidence that Big
Government can be quite friendly to inclusion of integrative practices.
Do you think Berwick will be bad for integrative care? More
July 26, 2010
Margaret Beeson, ND, owns and operates a Yellowstone Naturopathic Clinic, a complex which includes a 6 NDs, a spa, associated chiropractic and dental offices and a natural products dispensary. In this contribution to the Integrator
dialogue on the potential conflict of interest issues in doctors
selling products for a profit, Beeson offers 3 core arguments. The most
important is an honest acknowledgment that product incomes helps buy the
time she takes with patients and the staff to support their care. Are
natural product sales the "procedure" that floats holistic practice?
Heck, could they be part of the economic strategy to lure more MDs to
primary care? More
July 25, 2010
Scott Shannon, MD, president-elect of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) wants to see "ecological
medicine" integrated into "the next iteration of holism." A fall
conference co-sponsored by UCSF Osher Center and the Whole Child Center
led by integrative pediatrician Larry Rosen, MD will explore "ecological
health for the whole child." The Integrated Healthcare Policy
Consortium is asking members of the integrative practice community if
the organization should focus its energy on environmental issues.
Something seems to be in the air, deepening the connection
between.integrative medicine and these broader ecological themes. The
connection is natural, but is this the time for these still young and
resource-stretched organizations to be taking on new dimensions? More
Issue
#77
-July 3, 2010
July 5, 2010
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium calls
for input in next phase of national policy work for integrative care ...
AMA to urge repeal of Section 2706/non-discrimination; chiropractic
organization says "over our dead bodies" ... Holistic doctors offer
useful review of prevention language in federal healthcare reform law
... Yoga therapy in the Navy's new medical home in Bethesda ...
Naturopathic doctors as primary care boosted in publication ...
Bravewell opens applications for integrative medicine fellowships, takes
more control of selection ... Integrative Therapeutics-funded ND
residency update ... National University of Health Sciences receives
$500,000 from Standard Process ... New organization of massage educators
in hopeful start with first conference, election of new Board ...
Consortium of educators from licensed complementary healthcare disciplines
announces top-flight Council of Advisers to help with integration
strategies ... New NCCAM fact sheet on credentialing CAM practitioners
... Explore article on American Board of Integrative Holistic
Medicine describes new directions for this standard-setter for
integrative medical doctors ... AMA officially endorses "personalized
medicine" ... Homeopathic accreditation and certification organizations
organize summit to position field ... E-CAM now part of Hindawi
... NDNR reaches 5th year as key publication for NDs, other
natural medicine doctors ... Information Television Network initiates
new DVD series on natural health approaches ... Joyce Frye, DO reports
on LIGA, the international homeopathic conference ... Philanthropist-author Bill George and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche to
co-lead conference on Mindful Leadership ... Conference on integrative pediatrics explores
environmental influences ... Knowles and Hall to lead Natural Products
Foundation ... Blumenthal honored by pharmacognosy group with Varro
Tyler Award ... Jean Watson selected as AHNA's Holistic Nurse of 2010. More
July 3, 2010
I
split my professional life between the Integrator
and related writing and the organization featured here, the
Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care
(ACCAHC). This Quarterly
Report describes how the release of the Clinicians'
and Educators' Desk Reference on the Licensed Complementary and
Alternative Healthcare Professions is opening significant
discussions about inter-professional education inside schools and
universities nationwide; new developments in a dialogue with the NIH
NCCAM leadership; initial Council of Advisers includes Cooper, Haramati,
Jonas, Kligler, Knutson, Kreitzer, Nedrow, Perlman; document on Competencies
for Optimal Practices in Integrated Environments that is expected
to shape ACCAHC activity going forward developed through extensive
multidisciplinary process; plus latest thinking on themes for ACCAHC's
June 26-28, 2011 Conference for Educators. More
July 2, 2010
Five Branches University president Ron Zaidman, MTCM,
MBA supports a two-tiered training for the AOM field ... NCMIC president
Lou Sportelli, DC on whether hospitals will lead healthcare's
transformation ... AANP executive
director Karen Howard on her organization's strategy for defining
"integrative healthcare practitioner" in federal regulations
...Community Acupuncture Network co-founder Lisa Rohleder, LAc,
clarifies fees, visits, income at her anchor clinic ... BC chiropractic
association director Don Nixdorf, DC on the AMA campaign to overturn
2706/non-discrimination ... Anonymous acupuncturist uses discussion of
fellowships to vent opposition to short-course acupuncture by MDs,
others ... More
June 26, 2010
Here is your chance to
influence the direction of the most significant lobbying coalition
working to advance integrated healthcare in federal policy. The
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC -www.ihpc.info) has posted
a 10 question Survey Monkey poll through which they are soliciting your input. The
organization, led by Janet Kahn, PhD, executive director and Len
Wisneski, MD, chair, also sent a report to their e-list on their recent
action to advance integrative practices and integrated treatment. One
IHPC priority: lobbying specific members of the integrative practice
community onto new panels established in the Obama-Pelosi healthcare
overhaul bill. Here is your link to the survey and the IHPC update. Be
heard! More
June 25, 2010
An issue since the idea of an
"integrative medical doctor" emerged 15 years ago is what exactly the
term denotes. Is this an MD who recommends some meditation or an herb
now and then? What is the required training to earn the title? A
standard was set by Andrew Weil, MD, Victoria Maizes, MD, MPH and others
when they created the Integrative
Medicine Fellowship at the University of
Arizona School of Medicine. The program recently survey the 466 fellows
who have completed this program. Here is the profile that emerged from
the 254 respondents. More
June 16, 2010
Barack Obama's nomination of
Don Berwick, MD, MPH as administrator of
the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) merits the active
support of the integrative practice community. Berwick became known to
many in these fields through the 2009 IOM Summit where he articulated 8
"principles for integrative medicine." The Harvard professor's
visibility had already soared nationally when he responded practically
and ambitiously to the IOM's 2000 report on the awful extent of hospital
and physician-caused deaths by organizing the successful 100,000 Lives
Campaign. In 2009, personal experience led him to declare in Health
Affairs his "extremist" views on the importance of truly putting
patients at the center of care. Not surprisingly, the nomination of this
right-man-at-the-right-time is already proving extremely contentious.
Obama and Berwick may need support from every quarter when the hearings
begin later this summer. Pay attention. Be heard. Berwick is a legacy
choice for this moment in US healthcare. More
June 7, 2010
The concepts of prevention and health promotion
and even a paradigm shift away from a disease orientation is at the
heart of much integrative practice. Thus an article in the June 2010
issue of the e-newsletter of the American Holistic Medicine Association
(AHMA) is a useful document. Entitled simply "Prevention Provisions in
HR 3590," the article notes 10 separate places where the healthcare
overhaul law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act,
touches on the subject of prevention. Following AHMA permission, I
re-print the article here. While there is little here yet that embodies a
progressive approach to primary prevention, many are clearly steps in
the right direction. More
June 3, 2010
A
disturbing new report from Medco documents the growing use of major
pharmaceuticals in the treatment of children. Use with childhood chronic
diseases is highlighted with a particular area of concern the drug
treatment of Type 2 diabetes associated with childhood obesity. Integrator
columnist Michael Levin, a healthcare consultant with Health Business
Strategies, seizes on the report's recommendation that "health plans
actively promote lifestyle change." Levin urges the right integrative
medicine entrepreneurs to step up to a potentially lucrative business
opportunity. More
Issue
#76
-June
2, 2010
June 2, 2010
AMA
specialists seek continued discrimination against integrative
practitioners in effort to repeal Section 2706 of healthcare overhaul
... Ornish program receives penultimate boost toward full coverage from
CMS/Medicare ... AANP proposes a definition of "integrative
practitioner" to shape federal policy post reform .. Integrator
publishes resource on the mentions of CAM/IM in the healthcare overhaul
law ... Notes on the overhaul's impact on health psychologists and
LAcs from Bastyr University ... Brief comment/update on the Integrative
Medicine Clinic of Santa Rosa ... Medical schools begin offering tenure
to integrative medicine leaders ... College links with integrative
medicine clinic to offer certificate course for "patient navigators"
...
Duke's Integrative Health Coach program booked solid, certification
program begins soon ... NCCAM begins publishing priorities for the
2011-2015 strategic plan, holds session on CAM and behavioral change
...
Botanical sales up in 2009 to over $5-billion .. Survey finds MD
knowledge of herbs remains low ... Standard Process honored for
commitment to advancing integrative medicine ... Bravewell publishes 50
page booklet on integrative medicine ... Helfgott's Tippens reports
socio-demographic data on clients of community acupuncture model ..
Fall
2010 American Public Health Association conference will include 16
segments on alternative healthcare practices and chiropractic ...
Integrative medicine featured in Minnesota Monthly and group
visits in the Denver Post ... Micozzi's pioneering Fundamentals
of
Complementary & Integrative Medicine textbook in 4th edition
with forward from former JAMA editor George Lundberg ... Mark
Hyman, MD takes role as chair of the Institute for Functional Medicine
... Integrative behavioral health leader Joseph DeNucci announces new
retreat center ... More
May 28, 2010
The ink is hardly dry on the landmark Non-Discrimination
in Health Care provision (Section 2706)
of the Patient Protection and Healthcare Affordability Act, and MD
specialists are pushing its repeal. Anesthesiologists
and
ophthalmologists have asked the AMA to initiate a major lobbying
campaign at the executive, Congressional and grassroots levels. The
request is framed as part of the AMA's ongoing Scope of practice
partnership against other professions. Section
2706
is healthcare reform's most significant inclusiveness measure for
DCs, NDs, LAcs, massage therapists and licensed midwives, potentially
opening consumer choice to over 50-million more Americans. In the name
of patient protection, the two AMA specialty societies were targeting
their direct competitors, nurse anesthetists and optometrists. Here is
the proposed Resolution as it will go to the AMA House of Delegates in
June 2010. More
May 26, 2010
Tom
Ballard, ND shares a fascinating
encounter with Wikipedia over whether Paracelsus was the original
medical quack ... Acupuncturist Gary
Wagman, LAc calls Beth Israel's fellowship for licensed acupuncturists a
shame ... Bethany Leddy, LAc and
consultant Linda Rapuano offer correction that the original inpatient
fellowship for LAcs was not at Beth Israel but at St. Vincent ...
Consumer Perry Chapdelaine, Sr. urges that NCCAM examine those practice
which seek to work with patients to find and treat the causes of
disease.
More
May 20, 2010
In 2004, the
chiropractic profession and various Veterans' Service Organizations
shouldered their way into the Veterans Health Administration through an
act of Congress. Now, 4 years
later, what do we know? How experienced are the VHA chiropractors? With what conditions are patients presenting? From which specialties are referrals
originating? Via what models are
the chiropractors
employed and how much as they being paid? How
well integrated are they with the other
medical services? To what extent
are they using these
positions to educate others? Here is an at-a-glance chart of answers to
these and other questions as reported by a
team including Anthony Lisi, DC, Christine Goertz, DC, PhD and
others. Lisi heads up the VHA's chiropractic program. More
May 18, 2010
The American Hospital
Association is gathering its members at a Leadership Summit this July,
the theme of which is "Hospitals Leading Health Care's Transformation."
The claim in the title struck me as quite unlikely. Two images came to
mind: one of mass seppuku, the other of the artist Christo with his
sights on a sprawling metropolitan hospital building much as he once
focused his conceptual art on the German Reichstag. Here are some
musings on the probabilities of hospitals leading health care
transformation, and some intimations about where we might begin to find a
leading coalition.
More
May 12, 2010
This article is meant as a
reference resource on integrative practice and healthcare policy.
Included are locations and exact language in the sections of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Healthcare Act (HR 3590) that will shape policy action
relative to integrative practices in coming years. Complementary and alternative medicine
practitioners and integrative practices
are included in these sections (2706, 3502, 4001, 4206, 5101, 6301 and
2301) relative to non-discrimination, workforce planning, community
medical homes, wellness, prevention and health promotion, comparative
effectiveness research and birthing services. Here are the facts,
without interpretation or commentary. (If there are others, let me
know.) What they will mean is up to us. The challenge ahead is to bring
what one integrative practice lobbyist called "these major steps toward
recognition" to life. More
_________________________
In May 2008, the Integrator
began publishing a "newsletter-inside-the-newsletter" to subscribers and
others as a mean of providing a quick scan of action related to
integrative practice. Three significant organizations in the field now
routinely send these out to their members, recognizing their value - and
reaching over 150,000! Assembling them all here will give anyone a
decent overview of what's what since we began publishing these in May
2008. Here's hoping these prove useful to you! It's fascinating to take a
quick scan, particularly recalling that when I began writing a
newsletter on the "CAM" field in 1997, the publisher asked me if there
was enough going on to fill 8 pages each month. Please join me in
thanking Integrator sponsors NCMIC
Group, Alternative
Medicine Integration Group, Inner
Harmony Group, Institute
for Health and Productivity Management and Integrative
Practitioner/Integrative Healthcare Symposium for making this
service possible. -- John Weeks, Publisher-Editor. More
For earlier articles:
Issues
#74 & #75 - March April 2010
Issues
#72 & #73 - Jan-Feb 2010
Issues #69, #70 & #71 - Nov-Dec 2009
Issues
#67 & #68 - Sept-Oct 2009
Issues
#65-#66 - July-Aug 2009
Issues
#63-#64 - May-June 2009
Issues #55-#56 - Nov-Dec 2008
Issues #47-#50 - July-August 2008
Issues #45 & -#46 - May-June 2008
Issues #43-#45 Mar-April 2008
Issues #41 & #42 - Feb 2008
Issues
#39 & #40 - Dec-Jan '08
Issues #37 & #38 - Nov 2007
Issues
#35 & #36 - Oct 2007
Issues #33 & #34 - Sept 2007
Issues #30-#32 - July-Aug 2007
Issues #28 & #29 - June 2007
Issues #26 and #27 - May 2007
Issue #25 - April 2007
Issues # 23 & #24 - March 2007
Issues #21 and #22 - Feb 2007
Issues #19 and & 20 - Jan 2007
Issues #17 and #18 - Dec 2006
Issues #15 and #16 - Nov 2006
Issues #13 and #14 - Oct 2006
Issues #11 and #12- Sept 2006
Issues #9 and #10 - Aug 2006
Issues #7 and #8 - July 2006
Issues #5 and #6 - June 2006
Issues #3 and #4 - May 2006
Issues #1 and #2 - Apr 2006
Or go to Archive, lower right column,
on the home page.
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