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Gregory Wong, Kamal Shah, Pamela
Saunders, Nancy Harazduk, Rochelle Trachtenberg, Michael Lumpkin and
Aviad Haramati: "Impact of Mind-Body Skills Groups on Medical Students:
Quantitative Analysis of Perceptions of Stress and Mindful Awareness."
Presented at the North American Research Conference on Complementary
and Integrative Medicine, May 24-27, 2006.
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Wong's group concluded that the mind-body skills course may "help advance several desirable educational goals." These include: reduce perceived stress, increase mindfulness, increase self-awareness and foster empathy. The ultimate outcome: the course has become a regular part of first year training at Georgetown University's School of Medicine. U Minn Partnership with CAM School: Increased Knowledge, Confidence, Mutual Respect  Researcher Karen Lawson, MD The study focused on learning about AOM. Students were given course materials and finished web-based modules on AOM prior to filling out a questionnaire. They then traveled to NUHS for a single 90 minute segment in which, in groups of 6-8 students, they revolved through 6 stations, gaining hands-on experience of content which had been covered, didactically, in the modules.
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The Difference Hands-on Experience Can Make:
90 Minute Session of MD Students with TCM Students at CAM School
Based on self-evaluation of "levels of confidence"
with 0 "low" and 10 "high"
Karen Lawson, Pat Hart, Lixin Zhang: "An Experiential Model for Teaching Comparative Medical Systems." Presented at the North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine, May 24-27, 2006.
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Lawson concluded her presentation with quotes from participating medical students, who consistently make this session, through their participation, the most well-attended part of the year-long course. Both studies were funded through R-25 grants from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Comment: I like the basic idea of medical students filling out forms which check on whether they have noticed life, and cared for their fellow students. The test-taking alone probably had a placebo positive effect. Better yet is to imagine conventional medical students first experiencing a mind-body educational program such as that which Wong described, followed by a hands-on experiential program such as Lawson reported. One can begin to imagine the hatchlings of a new generation
Notably, the combined classroom hours involved in these two programs were 23.5 (22 mind-body plus 1.5 "comparative medical systems"). In a world in which course time is at a premium, these represent efficient ways to prepare students to better meet their patients. From the looks of the first draft of the AMA House of Delegates Resolution #306, from June 2006, the increasingly female set of medical students are calling for significantly increasing CAM-IM education in the medical curriculum. (See Integrator article.) However, the AMA's gutting of the language recommended by the Student Section, before passing #306 as an apparently token gesture, suggests that it will be some time before organized medicine begins to support either the student-centered or patient-centered education toward which these studies direct us. Wouldn't it be a sweet thing if the AMA came down firmly on the side of students learning to stop, gain some empathy, and smell the roses? Kudos to the NIH NCCAM for funding these R-25 programs.
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Copyright © 2006-2007 John Weeks - The Integrator Blog
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Separate reports of these two educational interventions at Georgetown University and the University of Minnesota,
respectively, suggest that combining the two into basic medical school
curriculum will begin to create the kind of integrative and
self-integrated medical doctor which patients are increasingly
desiring. 
