Certification
and licensing are issues in many emerging and traditional healthcare
professions. Leslie Kaminoff supports high standards but believes that
any third-party intervention in the teacher-patient or
practitioner-patient relationship is harmful. Kaminoff, a long-time
leader in Yoga, argues that not only third party (insurance) payment,
but also licensing and even self-regulation by professions to set fixed
standards creates illusion and false security in consumers. His
logic may have an appeal to many in the broader CAM-IM world.
(Interestingly, Yoga's dialogue on certification was stimulated by the
heart health program of Dean Ornish, MD.) This article is part of an Integrator series
on the Future of Yoga Therapy sponsored through the International
Association of Yoga Therapists (See related articles, below.)
On October 25, the chief science and health correspondent for NBC News, Robert Bazell, lambasted dietary supplements, questioned (most) of alternative medicine, blasted Andrew Weil, then questioned
the value of the NIH NCCAM. Bazell called the Center's work "a futile effort." Similar highly-placed, polarizing editorials have appeared recently in Science and the FASEB Journal. A writer on a George Mason University media site comes to NCCAM's defense, though from a perspective that is not CAM friendly.
While production of the Integrator is basically a one-man shop, the network which wires me into news and ideas is broad. The hard-copy Integrator for the Business of Alternative Medicine and its predecessor (1997-2001) had an editorial advisory boar; I realized that the mission of the Integrator Blog News & Reports would
benefit through constituting such a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder group. Ananth, Barnes, Bezold, Benda, Choate, Hammerly, Jacobs plus ... I am pleased and proud to have these leaders associated with the Integrator mission
and volunteering themselves to help me see, understand and, where
useful, help organize around the issues and opportunities that are
emerging.
Since 1997,
individuals currently leading the multi-disciplinary and
multi-stakeholder Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) have
taken the lead in a series of national policy actions regarding
integrated healthcare. Among these are pushing for the creation of NIH
NCCAM, convening national policy and national education dialogues to
advance integrated health care, and incubating a new CAM educator
consortium. According to board chair, Sheila Quinn, IHPC is poised to
play a growing role in promoting policy that can help transform US
health care.
As an early
step in exploring development of a formal graduate program in
nutrition, the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) are sponsoring a CME-CEU program on November 10
which will compare data on nutritional and other interventions for two
significant health problems: coronary artery disease and childhood
obesity. The November 10 program distinguishes itself, as a
conventional medical school-sponsored program, for its
multi-disciplinary faculty and its willingness to ask the $64-billion
dollar+ question: How do natural and integrated treatments stack up, clinically and financially, compared to conventional approaches alone?
Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD(hc) and his Corporate Health Improvement
Program (CHIP), which involves over a dozen of the nation's largest
employers, is focusing its research and clinical programs on prevention
and disease management "using an integrative medicine approach."
Outcomes of the multi-year project will focus on both clinical and
cost-effectiveness. CHIP's development since 1984, and the list of
areas of potential exploration, are lessons in understanding the large
employer as an integrated care partner.
The NIH National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), forced on
the NIH by the US Congress in 1998, has always been viewed as a kind of
bastard step-child by the old-line NIH establishment. Now a
Congressionally-mandated re-shaping of NIH, federal budget pressures, a
series of negative results and antagonistic editorials inScience, and the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, one may see, in the distance the signs of a perfect storm.
October 10. 2006
Jeanne Drisko, MD, was named last summer to the Hugh
D. Riordan Professorship in Orthomolecular Medicine at the University
of Kansas Medical Center. The endowed professorship is the first of its
kind in the United States. The chair honors Drisko's mentor, a
long-time leader in the orthomolecular field. Interesting, for a field
which was originally able to flourish because of its distance from academic medicine ...
My tales
of my September hospitalization with a complicated appendix removal
("In the Belly of the Beast") brought many notes from readers. Thank
you. A few colleagues sent longer accounts and reflections. The idea
began to grow in me to ask them for their permission to share what they
wrote. The
result is this thought-filled, multi-voiced, and multi-dimensional
quintet on our relationships with hospitals - with a short comment from
George Orwell, writing in 1946. Enjoy!
What does taking 3rd party payment change in a clinical practice? What
role does such payment play in the development of a healthcare
profession? Agostino Villani, DC, a long-time chiropractic leader and CEO
of Integrator sponsor Triad Healthcare, provided a wonderfully
frank assessment in an earlier Integrator article. Villani focused on some of the corruptive pressures.
This article looks at views of two insurance-savvy leaders of the
naturopathic medical profession, Kevin Wilson, ND, and Bruce Milliman,
ND, who read Villani's comments and reflected on their own views. These
are their remarks, and Villani's responses. This article is part of a sponsored series on the Future of Yoga Therapy from the International Association of Yoga
Therapists.
"Integration" is enhanced by awareness of the priorities of the "other" with which one is, or may be, involved. This irregular Integrator
feature is a look at strategic actions of some leading organizations
with a stake in creating a better integrated healthcare system. Issue #2 of the Integrator included an article on the Defacto CAM-IM Federal Agenda.
The article explored the federal initiatives of diverse groups involved
in advancing integrated care. This article looks more broadly at
current priorities of organizations which represent significant
stakeholders in the healthcare integration effort.
Roughly 63% of Integrator readers who participated in the poll (N=153)
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 an 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
Kaminoff Makes Case Against Insurance, Regulation, Dictated Standards
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC): Leadership in National Action
Wisconsin CME Session Explores Benefits/Costs of Nutrition+ for CAD, Childhood Obesity
Is NIH NCCAM Sailing into a Perfect Storm?
Poll on IHPC Interest in a Federal Office of Integrated Health Care: 63% Support, Negatives Intriguing
