Poll on IHPC Interest in a Federal Office of Integrated Health Care: 63% Support, Negatives Intriguing

Summary: Roughly 64% of Integrator readers who participated in the poll (N=151) believe that creating a federal office for integrated health care is critical for improving health care in the United States." Nearly a quarter expressed strong disagreement. Interestingly, a similar Integrator survey which focused on whether such a good office was "critical for the future of CAM/IM" found only a small fraction who expressed disagreement. Leaders of the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium are exploring ways to advance this federal agenda. Send comments on your view (pro or con) to

Any pollster will tell you that a good deal of the outcome is in the framing of one's question. This appears to be evident in two recent, differently-framed Integrator polls on the policy question of the importance of a new federal office.

Poll #1: Office of "complementary/integrative med" and role for "CAM-IM's future"

Sheila Quinn, IHPC board chair

Clearly, healthy majorities favor the federal office, of either type or intent. Quinn believes the strong agreement by roughly 50% is particularly important given the strength of the language used: "When I considered using the word 'critical' to people's health, I knew we were asking something different than if we had said 'helpful' or even 'very important.' That half think this is critical affirms the IHPC agenda."

Kahn, taking a different view on the role of the word "critical" in the poll, notes about those who disagree that, potentially, "the disagreement may only be over whether it is 'critical' and not whether it would be a good idea to have a federal office of integrated health care."

When asked about the suggestion of Kathi Kemper, MD (see Your Comments article) that what we needed was a "Federal Office of Wellness," Quinn explained her view that "integrated health care" may be a strategically valuable term: "It's a wonderful point - because we do want a wellness focus from our system - but the term triggers the pragmatist in me. We need to communicate effectively with the segment of our community that dominates and controls medicine. If we make our alliances only outside, we minimize our chances within the system. If we use 'wellness' as our primary calling card, there are a lot of people in medicine who don't identify with that term as part of their mission in health care. 'Integrated health care' includes all of it."