November 26, 2006 mailing - Issue #16November 26, 2006
At the
November Interim Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates, delegates
considered two resolutions expanding the reach of the AMA Scope of
Practice Partnership. One related to "oversight
of mid-level providers" and the other regarded interpretation of
diagnostic tests. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists says
AMA action "smacks of McCarthyism." AMA, which has not had nine
distinct resolutions on SOPP issues, has placed the SOPP in its
strategic plan.
November 25, 2006
Lisa Rohleder,
LAc, and her partners at Portland, Oregon-based Working Class
Acupuncture argue that the best way to integrate acupuncture into the
health care of US citizens is to radically restructure the practice.
They recommend a sliding scale ($15-$35), high volume practice which is
delivered in community rooms. Rohleder and her group feel they have
proved the model and are now rolling it out the model nationally
through development of a Community Acupuncture Network which already
boasts 19 members. Rohleder suggests that the approach may not only be
a "remedy" for acupuncture's access issues, but also for the problems
many licensed acupuncturists have in creating live-able incomes through
acupuncture practice.
November 24, 2006
NYBI's Woodson Merrell, MD will be the nation's first chair of IM in a
hospital department, venture firm creates integrated care centers for
ADD with initial openings in Boston and Dallas, Novey's Advocate Health Care program continues to expand, Marino Center for Progressive Health budget tops
$8-million and is in the black), and Amato's Inner Harmony Group inks
deal for integrative spa services ...
November 23, 2006 - Happy Thanksgiving!
Scherwitz to AIBMR Life Sciences, Kohatsu to culinary
school sabbatical, Callahan now Bastyr VP, Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine to shut its doors
after 25 years, Zablocki to edit Great Boards newsletter, changes in
Institute Functional Medicine board leadership, jobs at Marino and Boston University, NPIcenter
purchased, Community Acupuncture Network draws strong group to first
meeting, CAM EXPO a bust on turnout, and more ...
November 22, 2006
A month long Integrator website
survey found that 72% view the NIH National Center for Complementary
and Alternative Medicine as "critical in the advancement of integrated
health care." Roughly 4 in 10 marked "strongly agree." The outcomes are
compared in this article to a prior Integrator policy-related
poll which explore the criticality to US health care of creating a
federal office for integrated health care. Participation was higher and
outcomes more polarized in the earlier poll.
November 20, 2006
Nancy Aagenes, ND,
LAc with a post-election de-brief on new friend in the US Senate for
natural health care, US Senator Jon Tester (D) ... Integrator advisor
Michael Levin on cost savings from dietary supplements which are not
likely to be found if NIH NCCAM is ditched as NBC health reporter
Bazell recommends ... Yoga therapists Susanna Nicholson in the
integrative medicine program at Martha Jefferson Hospital comments on
Yoga leader Leslie Kaminoff's view on outside regulators, and Kaminoff
clarifies his view of Larry Payne's Yoga Rx program ... U Tennessee
professor emeritus Michael Betz, PhD, weighs in on the Integrator dialogue on what insurance coverage does to CAM disciplines, stimulated by the thoughtful comments of Agostino Villani, DC ...
November 14, 2006
This penultimate
article in the Future of Yoga Therapy series examines the program Larry
Payne, PhD offers through Loyola Marymount University extension: a
certificate program that prepares Yoga therapists to work in close
association with medical doctors, chiropractors and other health care
professionals. More of CAM and less of Ayurveda is the way
Payne describes it. Will this training of Yoga practitioners become an
important line in the field's maturation? Is there a loss in this
direction? This Integrator series is sponsored by the International Association of
Yoga Therapists.
November 9, 2006 mailing - Issue #15November 8, 2006
The
first director of the NIH National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine Stephen Straus, MD, has stepped down from his
position due to health reasons. A former acting director of the NIH,
Ruth Kirschstein, MD, has been named acting director of NCCAM. A
committee is exploring candidates for the director position. Does the
NIH have the courage and maturity to appoint a director who unites
research expertise with practical knowledge and expertise in the CAM/IM
fields?
November 8, 2006
Since 2000, Acupuncture Today
has presented its readers with a monthly poll on topical issues:
priorities for the profession, practice style, educational influences
and the always controversial: Should MDs, DCs and NDs be allowed to practice acupuncture. While there are no controls on the site
regarding who can register an opinion, and participation rates very
significantly from question to question, the impressionistic picture,
if dangerously un-controlled, has its intriguing elements.
November 7. 2006
Alan Zwerner,
JD, MD, the chief medical officer for the Institute for Health and
Productivity Management (IHPM), has a positive view of complementary
and integrative providers (CAM/IM) going back to a health plan
experiment with chiropractic in the early 1990s that found "the same or better results with much less cost and more satisfaction."
CAM/IM providers, he believes, "tend to care more about functionality"
in outcomes with their patients. But are you aligned with the 16
characteristics of today's health care that Zwerner believes are a
foundation for a "new contract" between providers and employers. He
proposes them as a basis for healthcare reform? How does CAM-IM fit in?
November 3, 2006
The NIH NCCAM stimulated relationship building between conventional and
CAM schools with their R-25 grants. This article focuses on a
pioneering relationship between Georgetown University School of
Medicine and the nearby Potomac Massage Training Institute. The impact
was profound for students as well as the Institute ...
October 31, 2006
A potpourri of items and opportunities, a seminar from pioneering therapeutic nutrition educators Wright-Gaby, AsOne's new program for health coaches, call for papers from British Columbia, an intriguing Washington Post article on the movement of employers toward clinics, Adi Haramati on leadership in CAM integration, a shift in leadership at Bastyr University, and more ...
October 31, 2006
An academic study
by some medical geographers shows the significant growth, nationally,
of natural health care's smallest licensed profession - naturopathic
medicine, plus state by state activity. And the American Massage
Therapy Association takes advantage of its 10th year of consumer
surveys to see how much consumer use of, and perspective about, massage
has changed. A special AMTA focus on Generations X & Y ...
October 29, 2006
The series of articles on the challenges to the legitimacy of the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Integrator
poll stimulated these reader responses. One honors NCCAM, but wonders
if the agency is critical for a
consumer-driven movement. Two focus on what they feel is a needed shift
for NCCAM toward a less reductive agenda toward one which might better
capture whole systems or whole person care. A fourth wonders if the
attacks on NCCAM are not perhaps part of an organized campaign.
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AMA SOPP Expands with New Resolutions: Nurses Anesthetists Charge AMA with "Medical McCarthyism" 
Working Class Acupuncture: Revolutionary Model Creates Access, Fosters Business Potential
Brief Notes: Leadership Shift at Bastyr,
16th Wright-Gaby Nutrition Seminar, Holistic Health Coaching/Linda
Bark, Wayne to Osher/NESA Position Open, Media Watch (Washington Post, Townsend Letter, Newsweek), plus
