[At the Huffington Post] It
is a pleasure every year to look back over the prior 12 months to
select the Top 10 for Policy and Action in Integrative Health and Medicine.Here is the list for 2015! Fun this year to see this "changing of the
guard" with the relative youth - compared to
this writer - of many of these accomplished professionals whose work is
highlighted: Katherine
Gergen-Barnett, MD, James Maskell, Shamini Jain, PhD, Michele Maiers,
DC, PhD and Tabatha Parker, ND. "Like" and "share" - to the extent that
you want! - and help celebrate far
and wide the work of these leaders. Use the comment field to note any
individual or organization that you believe deserved mentioning this
year. If you are interested, the Top 10 lists for 2006-2013 are posted here, and that for 2014 is posted here. Here's to the Coming of the Light! Happy Solstice. Enjoy the holidays! Feliz Ano Nuevo!
Special Focus: Integrative Practice in
Patient Centered Medical Homes
-IntegratorSpecial Report: Prototypes of
MD-Led and ND-Led Integrative Patient-Centered Medical/Health Homes
-Lorilee Schoenbeck, ND:
Pioneering a Naturopathic PCMH in Vermont's Health Reform (Part 1)
-Center for Natural Medicine: How Portland's Leading
Naturopathic, Integrative Center Became a Patient-Centered Medical Home
-Lorilee Schoenbeck, ND: Prevention and Quality
Improvement in a Naturopathic PCMH in Vermont (Part 2)
-Casey Health Institute: EVP/COO
Tracey Gersh, PhD on Bridging Integrative Health into a PCMH and Accountable
Care Organization Policy
-Health Coaches Introduce Resolution in the House of
Representatives
-Office of the Inspector General Announces New Strategy
on Over-Utilizing Chiropractors
-New Newsletter from IHPC's CoverMyCare Campaign Payment -Michael Traub, ND Reports from Hawaii on Breakthrough
with Blue Cross/Blue Shield Plan Academics & Education
-Terrific Set of Research-Clinical-Education-Policy
Pre-Conference Workshops for the May 2016 -International Congress on
Integrative Medicine and Health
-High, Diverse Enrollment for AIHM's First
Interprofessional Fellowship: 4 Slots Still Open
-SCU Partners with and USC for Integrative Care for
Men's/Women's Rugby
-SCNM Signs MOU with United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA)
-Bastyr University Offers Masters of Arts in Maternal
Child Health Systems Degree Integrative Centers & Clinical Care
-Making Quadruple the Triple Aim - System, Heal Thy
Practitioners
-Quick Links to Integrative Medicine News in Medical
Organizations and Communities: November 2015 Professions & Organizations
-Dynamic Chiropractic Survey on the Present Status of the
Changing Profession
-New Consciousness in Health Initiative Opens Web Portal
as GAHMJ Publishes Special Issue on
the Biofield
-Global Wellness Summit Declares Top 10 Global Wellness
Trends
-NCCAOM Publishes Three Strategic Goals for the AOM Field Professions
-Health Coaches Introduce Resolution in the House of
Representatives
-Dynamic Chiropractic Survey on the Present Status of the
Changing Profession Organizations
-New Consciousness in Health Initiative Opens Web Portal
as GAHMJ Publishes Special Issue on
the Biofield -Global Wellness Summit Declares Top 10 Global Wellness
Trends
-NCCAOM Publishes Three Strategic Goals for the AOM Field Natural Products
-American Botanical Council Publishes Two-Part Series
from NIH-Funded Group on Botanical Integrity
-Goldenseal and a Form of Aloe
Vera Added to California's Carcinogens List
-Council for
Responsible Nutrition Published Report on Supplement Use: High Use, High Confidence International
-Acupuncturists without Borders Celebrates its 10th
Anniversary
-Global Integrator Round-up -
December 2015 Miscellaneous
-J. Weeks' "Winners History for Integrative Health and
Medicine" Podcast Available via Functional Forum/Evolution of Medicine
-James Gordon, Penny George, Mark Hyman on NPR's "On
Being" Talking Medical Transformation People
-Integrative Group Visit Expert Katherine Gergen-Barnett Takes
Key Innovation Role at Boston Medical Center Primary Care
December 14, 2015
At the Huffington Post: Report Shares Successes/Challenges in M.D.-Led and N.D.-Led Integrative Patient-Centered Medical Homes One
comment: "Oh there are so many successes! One that warms my heart is
the people coming in with multiple chronic issues. Then you see them six
months later, totally transformed ... They would have never known we
existed nor come in had we not been a primary care home." The populations are assigned, including many Medicaid patients. One
remarkable early lesson appears to be that integrative care should not
be dismissed -- as some do -- as a pastime of wealthy health hobbyists. Another leader comments on an obesity program in a similar population: "With our evidence-based protocol, people are taking off pounds and keeping it off. It's
very exciting to remove the diagnosis of obesity from a patient's chart
-- and I get to do that a lot." These are among the successes reported,
along with challenges, in this summary look, at the Huffington Post, at
these pioneering integrative patient-centered medical homes.
Top stories: The WHO’s campaign to limit antibiotic overuse brought to mind the
good work of the European integrative medicine community on the topic
last year. Check the link. Interesting to see the role of homeopathy in
Colombia – a practice featured in works of that nation’s Nobel winner
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. I happily report the belated and important
inclusion of traditional healers in the Ebola strategy in Sierra Leone.
Infectious diseases are having the positive consequences of bringing
diverse practitioners together for a common enemy. More on that soon.
Finally, can work on the “biofield” be anything less than “global”? Adam
Gopnik’s New Yorker review is a nice opening to an intensive
collaboration underway to organize research and consciousness raising
about consciousness in healing.
Is the emerging outpatient model of
the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) - or "health home" as some
prefer - an environment in which integrative team-based practices can
flourish? Will integrative health and medicine prove themselves better
in this environment than in straight fee-for-services practices? Will
the field advance more rapidly if more integrative medicine clinic
leaders apply themselves to working in these environments? These questions arose after the passage of
the Affordable Care Act elevated the PCMH method of clinical care through multiple new incentives. This Integrator Special Report brings together 9 separate articles on the subject - the most thorough look at these emerging models to date.
This Integrator
feature is a
quick capture of highlights
from web stories relative to integrative medicine and health in the
prior
month. Here are 26 involving medical delivery systems and 14 more in
communities. Included are the remarkable developments in the "biofield"
led by Shamini Jain, MD, Deepak Chopra and others; David Katz, MD's
decision to take on the "polarization-based medicine" anti-CAM/IM tribe;
expansion of the mindfulness program for educators and clinicians at
Georgetown University; very favorable coverage on acupuncture's coming
of age in Time and US News & World Reports; and Ronald Hoffman, MD
challenging recent negative reports on dietary supplements. Enjoy the
skim of activities!
Martin
Milner, ND, founder the 6,500 square foot Center for Naturopathic
Medicine as a beacon of light in a dark age for his profession over 30
years ago. Three years ago he chose to move the 12-pratitioner center to
become what it is now: a Level 3 certified a patient-centered primary
care medical home for Care Oregon. In this article, Melissa Porter, the
center's chief operations person and quarterback of the transition
shares the store of the changes made, and early outcomes. This
article is produced as part of a recent partnership between the Project
for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim
(PIHTA) and the North American Board
of Naturopathic Examiners (NABNE) for which the Integrator is providing
media
support.
In this second of a two part interview with pioneering
naturopathic patient-centered medical home (PCMH) operator Lorilee
Schoenbeck, ND, the focus turns to the prevention and quality
improvement initiatives in place at her center, Mountain View Natural
Medicine. Here is a look at the initiatives in immunizations, obesity,
colonoscopy, dyslipedemia and more in this NCQA-scored, Level 2
PCMH. This
article is produced as part of a partnership between the Project for
Integrative Health and the Triple Aim
(PIHTA) and the North American Board
of Naturopathic Examiners (NABNE) for which the Integrator is providing
media
support. The goal of the PIHTA-NABNE partnership is to stimulate
understanding
of naturopathic integrative patient centered medical homes (PCMH) via
portraits
of clinics in Vermont and Oregon.
The news could surprise many. In the state of Vermont -
as in Oregon - naturopathic physicians can, and do, operate accredited primary
care medical homes (PCMHs). In Vermont, naturopathic physicians do so following a
steady stream of up-regulation over the past 20 years. Licensing. Recognition as
part of the state's primary care matrix. Insurance coverage. Medicaid inclusion.
Most recently, in 2011, inclusion as accepted owners and operators of PCMHs
under the state's single-payer style Vermont
Blue Print for Health - and 2013, the first PCMH designation. That designee was the Mountain View Natural
Medicine center in Burlington. The pioneering force behind this opportunity
in Vermont is naturopathic physician Lorilee
Schoenbeck, ND. Her center is presently a Level 2 PCMH under a system of
scoring carried out by analysts from the most significant accreditor of PCMHs
nationwide, NCQA. This is the first
of two parts. The second will focus on prevention and clinical
improvement initiatives. This
article is produced as part of a recent partnership between the Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim
(PIHTA) and the North American Board
of Naturopathic Examiners (NABNE) for which the Integrator is providing media
support. The goal of the PIHTA-NABNE partnership is to stimulate understanding
of naturopathic integrative patient centered medical homes (PCMH) via portraits
of clinics in Vermont and Oregon.
The
executive vice president and COO of the Casey Health
Institute (CHI), Tracey Gersh,
PhD came to the ground-breaking, Maryland-based
integrative health center from roles as administrator and program
developer at
a nearby federally qualified health center (FQHC). In this article,
Gersh describes the movement of CHI into becoming a patient centered
medical home recognized by Care First, Maryland's Blue Cross/Blue Shield
firm, then its move to become part of a new accountable care
organization, Aledade, with a set of 5 other primary care clinics. She
speaks to thedifferences between CHI and the Federally Qualified Health
Center where she previously worked. This
article is the fourth in a partnership between the Project for
Integrative Health and the
Triple Aim (PIHTA) and
the Casey Health Institute (CHI) for which the Integrator is providing
media
support. The goal of the PIHTA-CHI partnership is to stimulate
understanding of
integrative primary care medical homes (PCMH) via a multi-faceted look
at the
model CHI is creating. PIHTA is an initiative of the Academic
Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC).
Policy
-Harvard Team Promotes Mind-Body
Practice as "Vaccination" after Finding 43% Reduction in Use of Healthcare
Services
-American Public Health Association Resolution Includes
Language from Chiropractors, Others, Elevating Integrative Approaches against Opioid
Overuse
-Take Action! IHPC Joins Campaign to Guarantee Quality
GMO Labeling
-APHA Panel Explores Sustainability and the USA Dietary
Guidelines Issue, Points to 2020 Redux Advances on Section 2706/Non-Discrimination
-National Sustainable Business Council, Holistic Chamber
and IHPC Host Webinar on2706 and the Value of Integrative Practitioners
-International Chiropractic Association Endorses IHPC's
Cover My Care Initiative (2706)
-Oregon Suit by Naturopathic Doctors on 2706 Draws
Counterpunch from Health Net Integrative Care
-Hello Gabby! Boston
Group Uses "Embodied Conversational Agent" to Enhance Integrative Medicine
Group Visits
-Upper Chesapeake Health Links with Maryland University
of Integrative Health for Integrative Care
-Pharmacy Times
Offers Financials Portrait of Dallas-Based Integrative Flower Mound Pharmacy
and Herbal Alternatives
-Quick Links to Integrative Medicine News in Medical
Systems and Communities: October 2015
-Is Regular Medical Delivery Creating Openness through
New "Rules for Radical Redesign"? Integrative Academics
-Bastyr University Begins First MPH Program in an
Integrative Health Institution Research & Evidence
-David (Katz) vs the Science-Based Medicine Goliath: Who
is the Science Denier?
-Character Assassination at Wikipedia? The Battle over
Deepak Chopra
-Update on the Council for Ayurvedic Research: Rioux in
Two Key Roles
-PERL Webinar Series Explores Important of Competency in
Evidence Informed Practice
-Parkinson's Researcher Laurie Mischley, ND, MPH, PhD(c)
with Michael J. Fox Foundation Organizations
-First AIHM Congress Draws 900, Fuels Interprofessional
Fellowship, Boosts Membership, Dream-Builders, and Association Leadership
Council
-Samueli Institute Reports on Chronic Pain Breakthrough
Collaborative in the IHI Model
-NCMIC Foundation's Investments in ACCAHC Initiatives
Surpasses $100,000
-Chiropractors Initiate Campaign for Medicare Equality
and Full Physician Status International
-Former Ornish Team Members Scherwitz and Kesten Lead
Lifestyle Conference in Ecuador
-Global Integrator Round-Up from Global Advances in Health and Medicine
for October 2015 Miscellaneous
-Boston Patriots QB Tom Brady Advocates for Integrative
Model
-Is There a Role for You in Right Language to Release the
River of Health from the Medical Industry? People
-David O'Bryon, JD the new Chair of the Academic
Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care
-Anne Doherty, LAc, MPH Chairs APHA Section on
Integrative and Traditional
- Gladys Mc Garey,
Jean Watson and Deborah Szekely Honored by AIHM
This Integrator
feature is a
quick capture of highlights
from stories on the web relative to integrative medicine in the prior
month. Here are 31 involving medical delivery systems and 13 more in
communities. Included is the remarkable move in Oregon Medicaid to cover
massage, acupuncture, chiropractic and naturopathic services in pain
treatment with the intent to limit opioid addiction. Check the
effective, short interview with Penny George, the first Bravewell chair.
Great post from Yale IM leader David Katz, MD, MPH taking on the
polarization-based medicine leaders. Out in the community, naturopathic
and homeopathic clinician and educator Amy Rothenberg, ND offers a short series of videos on her own cancer experience.
The Nobel to Tu Youyou and follow-up commentary
definitely dominated the traditional medicine news this month. Hope some
of you will enjoy my capture of themes in the global media coverage. It
keeps pouring out. There was other big news: amazing outcomes on the
effect of a mind-body intervention in limiting use of health services.
The huge reductions led a colleague to say: “If a drug had shown this
impact, think of the coverage!” Meantime, a powerful debate is
continuing to brew in the United States over the whole system view that
perhaps dietary guidelines should include sustainability concerns. What
do you think? Finally, my own very positive homebirth experiences mean
that the news from the Wall Street Journal brings great pleasure.
Research on botanicals at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
has engendered controversy from NCCIH's earliest days as NCCAM. Methods,
doses, preparations and priorities were bitterly questioned. So when the
American Botanical Council chose to publish a perspective from NCCIH's
botanicals chief on the "Past
and Future Research at National Center for Complementary and Integrative
Health
(NCCIH) with Respect to Botanicals," it seem time for an Integrator Forum: What Are Your Views on NCCIH's Past and Future for Botanical Research? Here are the view of commentators: Paul Bergner, Bevin
Clare, MS, RH(AHG), Bill Egloff, Tori
Hudson, ND, Sheila Kingsbury, ND, RH(AHG), Michael Levin, Beth Pimentel, ND,
LM, William Reddy, LAc, DiplAc, Researcher(Anon), James Snow, RH(AHG), Michael Timms, PhD, and Eric Yarnell, ND. I follow with
comments. If you have something to add, please send your comments to
for future publication.
Policy
-Whole System
Approach Slapped Down: Federal Panel Rejects Sustainability in Dietary
Guidelines
-RAND Report Engages Critical Issue: Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Modalities or Professions?
-From Pills to Pins:
Oregon Said to Be Changing Its Approach to Back Pain Clinical Care
-Cory Jecmen,
MAc, LAc: An Acupuncturist/Tech Player in Casey Health Institute's Integrative
PCMH
-Chinese Herb Strategy at the Cleveland Clinic: Insights
from Jamie Starkey, LAc, Program Director
-Detroit
Free Press Profiles the Yoga Therapy Program & School at Beaumont Hospital
-Quick
Links to Integrative Medicine News in Medical Systems and Communities:
September 2015 Academics
-Yo San University Receives $1-Million from the Thomas
Blount Trust
-Former Watergate Lawyer Sherman Cohn in 15th Year Offering
"CAM" Seminar at Georgetown Law
-Canadian Naturopathic College
Partners with Rwanda Researchers: Benefit Found for Selenium in People with HIV Organizations
-AANP Gains Congressional Endorsements for Inclusion of Naturopathic
Medicine in Veteran's Health
-Who Is a Doctor, a
Physician, a Modality, or a Profession? For AIHM, Language Matters Awards
-Nobel
Prize Based on a Traditional Chinese Medicine Herb & Text: Turning Point for TCM?
-$250,000 Dr. Rogers Prize to University of Toronto
Integrative Leader Heather Boon, PhD Miscellaneous
-Media Bias: Would
This Headline Have Said "Chiropractor" or "Naturopath" If One of These Were the
Perpetrator?
-Montana's Margaret Beeson, ND Moderates Panel on
Marijuana Legalization People
-Lou Sportelli, DC Exits NCMIC Group Presidency and Now Leads
the NCMIC Foundation
-In Memoriam:
Pioneering Integrative Medical Doctor Mitchell Gaynor, MD
-Iman Majd, MD, LAc Honored as a Seattle Top Doctor in
Integrative Medicine
-Cleveland Indians' Jamie Starkey, LAc: First
Acupuncturists Employed by Major League Baseball Team
Global traditional medicine news is over-flowing
with multiple reflections on the meaning of the award of the Nobel Prize in
Medicine to Chinese researcher Tu Youyou. The award followed the
discovery by Tu and her team on the utility of sweet wormwood (Artemesia annua) to combat malaria. The discovery
has saved hundreds of millions of lives. Artemisinin-based drugs are now "routinely
used by pharmaceuticals giants like Sanofi and Novartis in the fight
against malaria, which still kills half a million people a year." All the Nobel awards, as reported here
at Nature, stimulated dialogue in
the twitter sphere. Yet it was the award to Tu "of the China Academy of Chinese
Medical Sciences in Beijing, who inspired much of the online discussion." Here
are some of the intriguing themes in these media accounts, with some commentary
built in. The announcement
is here. (This article was first prepared for the Global Integrator Blog for Global Advances in Health and Medicine.)
I initiated this interview with Cory
Jecmen, MAc, LAc
by noting how unusual it is to find the same individual wearing the
dual hats of clinical acupuncturist and electronic medical record (EMR)
techie. It's rare enough to find an acupuncturist in a patient-centered
medical home (PCMH). Jecmen laughed, reflecting on the integrated
environment of
which he is part at Casey Health Institute (CHI): "You could probably
use all
fingers to list my roles." Jecmen, whose professional background
includes undergraduate studies in
biology and chemistry, plus work as an acupuncturist with the Veteran's
Health Administration, describes in this article his experience in
helping to shape the CHI initiative. The article is produced as part of a partnership between the Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim (PIHTA)
and CHI for which the Integrator is providing media support. The goal is to
stimulate understanding of integrative patient centered medical homes
(PCMHs) via a multi-faceted look at the CHI model.
October 1, 2015
This Integrator
feature is a
quick capture of highlights
from stories on the web relative to integrative medicine in the prior
month. Here are 29 involving medical delivery systems and 10 more in
communities. The global nature of the movement is evident in a couple of
pieces: Woodson Merrell, MD, co-founder of the Continuum Center in New
York, is interviewed on his book for Arab News, and Katherine
Gergen-Barnett, MD, the integrative group visits maven, was speaking in
Australia. Good to see the news on Beaumont Hospital's
inpatient-outpatient Yoga therapy program. Sad to see Newsweek on
the bandwagon with Reason.TV in blasting NIH NCCIH. And the rare MD,
LAc - Iman Majd - honored as atop integrative doctor in Seattle.
I recently spoke with Jamie
Starkey, LAc on the widely reported Chinese herb program she had the lead
in founding at the Cleveland Clinic. How did the team get this unique
program through? While scores of hospitals and health systems have
acupuncturists on staff, this appears to still be the singular Chinese herb
program housed in a large medical delivery organization in the United States.
The program is located in an outpatient facility. It does not serve inpatients.
Starkey spoke to the powerful support of the founding director of the Clinic's
integrative medicine center, Tanya
Edwards, MD, now deceased. She then described the strategy in detail, including the elaborate sourcing exploration that led to off-site fulfillment by Crane Herbs.
