Research-interested CAM clinicians will be among beneficiaries of two new research development programs. The Integrator spoke with Bernard Osher Foundation president Mary Bittermanabout the Osher-NIH NCCAM program to offer research career development grants to clinicians from the distinctly
licensed natural healthcare professions of chiropractic, naturopathic
and acupuncture and Oriental medicine.
Meantime, a distinct UCSF Osher Center program will be offering two
research fellowships in 2007 and two more in 2008 which are open to
both conventionally-trained researchers as well as those from the
natural healthcare professions. The initial submission deadline for
both programs is February 1, 2007.
Reed Phillips, PhD, DC to leave presidency of SCUHS ... Not-for-profit
network and resource for integrative clinics, Healing Clinics United, begins under the direction
of Beth Rosenthal, MPH, MBA, PhD ... Linda Rapuano updates integrated
care work at St. Vincents, NYC ... Richard Materson, MD chairs board of
Institute for Religion and Health in Houston ... Mitch Haas, DC, MPH
honored for both public health and research work ... Russ Greenfield,
MD, takes break after 5.5 years at Carolinas Health ... Jeff Bland,
PhD, looks at life after Metagenics presidency and role as Institute for Functional Medicine chair,
plus ...
Integrator interviewees are typically asked for data, if they have it, to ground the qualitative aspects of an interview. It will mean more to readers,
I tell them. Well, what is asked of the goose must be asked of the
gander. If you thought the picture of the appendix that accompanied my
two postings on my September hospitalization was ugly, wait until you
see the gruesome economic details of what, with complications, became a four day hospitalization. Here is an education on what a
$5000 deductible plus 30% co-insurance plan can mean to those who are
choosing, or being forced to choose, this type of coverage in
"consumer-directed" health plans ...
For the impatient, progress is always caught in a traffic jam. Looking
back, we see how far we have come. The year of 2006 has seen many
advances for the multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder field of
integrated health care. This article, published on the winter solstice,
provides you with the Integrator Top 10 from 2006 - with links,
should you wish to explore them further. Send your suggestions,
disagreements, and reflections to
Here's to the coming of the light! (Dawn photo from ilind.net)
Talk of money provokes responses. The discussion of fees paid to hired
acupuncturists in the Community Acupuncturist Network (CAN) model
continues to provoke response. Seven voices are represented here. Sherman
Cohn, JD, Georgetown law professor and 30-year student of (and activist
in) acupuncture's emergence focuses on the variable fees in private
practice versus community settings. A 'retired acupuncturist' lambastes
the lack of a 'job market' for acupuncturists, then wonders why schools
don't offer training in two areas where hiring does take place:
addiction and pain management. Bastyr dean and national accreditation
leader Terry Courtney, LAc, MPH offers a response. Geoff Barkley, PhD,
LCSW, believes that the low fees, while unjustified given the
professional training, come with the territory of working for change.
Finally, three affiliates of CAN explain why they feel the fees are
justified - focusing on the apprenticeship which is offered.
December 15, 2006
Holism
just made one of its most significant advances in US health care. The
American Nurses Association accepted holistic nursing as a recognized
specialty within nursing. The decision followed a two year process
guided by the 26-year-old, 3200 member American Holistic Nurses
Association and the association's president, Carla Mariano, RN, EdD,
AHN-BC (Board Certified). Good for nursing! Good for us!
Well-integrated acupuncture, as provided by licensed acupuncturists, is
finally getting a test in inpatient care in a US hospital. Through
relationships built between Los Angeles' Good Samaritan Hospital (GSH)
and Emperors College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jeannette
Painovich, LAc, DAOM will soon be managing a historic, $218,500
research project. LAcs will practice side-by-side with conventional MDs
and nurses in treating a whole array of critical conditions. Clinical,
patient satisfaction and cost outcomes will be measured, with a
particular focus on potential savings in the area of length of stay. A
key element in the set-up is the acupuncture profession's new Doctor of
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) clinical doctorate, through
which GSH will have its acupuncture clinicians. The project has more
potential for impact on US health care than any dozen acupuncture RCTs.
First as chief of staff for US Senator Tom Harkin and then as a
lobbyist associated with Pharmavite and United Natural Products
Alliance, Peter Reinecke was present at the conception and passage
of the adverse events reporting (AER) bill for the dietary supplement
industry. After the AER bill passed both chambers, the Integrator contacted Reinecke for a brief report on the process, the opposition and the meaning of the AER.
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
convened an international roundtable to explore the "methodological"
challenges in the whole systems research strategies which respect the
whole of what human beings are. Measuring economic outcomes was recommended by George Lewith, MD, PhD, and others. Percolating through the discussion
are suggestions of the extent to which political-economic biases in the
conventional research establishment are arrayed against whole
systems research ever having a meaningful effect on health care. A
political solution involving a focused funding campaign to US Senator Tom Harkin, the Congressional CAM Caucus and the 110th Congress is suggested.
Bill Meeker, DC, MPH takes over presidency of Palmer West, Christine Choate, DC, PhD to lead Palmer's research .. Jeanne Achterberg, PhD,
moving the frontier of medicine ... Pain experts learning integration
from James Dillard, MD, DC, CAc ... Update on the Jahnke/McLean Health
Action, plus James Strohecker, PhD's new Wellness Inventory ... Lori
Knutson, RN, named AHNA's holistic Nurse of the year ... and
association action from SAR, AANP, IAF, IAYT and more ...
BREAKING NEWS: On December 9 at 3:06 AM, the last act of the US House of Representatives in the 2006 Congress was to pass AER legislation.
In the waning days of the 109th Congress, the US Senate passed a bill
requiring adverse events reporting (AER) for the dietary supplement
industry and the over-the-counter (OTC) drug industry. Though supported
by the Natural Products Association and the American Herbal Products
Association, the bill has also generated opposition from some parts of
the broader natural health world, including the American Association
for Health Freedom. If AER doesn't pass, a similar bill is expected to
be back before the Democratic 110th Congress next year. The Democrats would be expected to produce a bill that is more stringent.
December 7, 2006
In December of
2004, members of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for
Integrative Medicine (CAHCIM) reached a milestone in their development
as a young organization. They formally adopted a guiding definition of
"integrative medicine" (IM). Yet within months a younger consortium representing educators from alternative healthcare disciplines, the Academic Consortium for
Complementary and Alternative Health Care, asked them to change their self-definition. The
core issue had to do with whether IM was focused on integrating
therapies or providers. CAHCIM responded positively to the suggestion
and put a new multi-disciplinary face on their self-definition as
"integrative medicine." The story, largely unreported, deserves telling as we in the northern hemisphere nudge toward the season of the coming of the light ...
December 5, 2006
The recent
column on the Working Class Acupuncture (WCA) model of delivering low
cost acupuncture in a community room provoked a response that the
$15-$20 rate for hiring an acupuncturist does not reflect rates
elsewhere and was "shameful." The Integrator contacted the WCA co-founders for their response, and then contacted Subhuti Dharmananda, PhD, a
clinic operator who also offers a national perspective. The discussion
jumps between what acupuncturists get paid in various markets, and what
they may "deserve" to get paid - to how we can create sound business practices.
Research-interested CAM clinicians will be among beneficiaries of two new research development programs. The Integrator spoke with Bernard Osher Foundation president Mary Bitterman 
Belly of the Beast, Part 3: The Cost of a Hospitalization with a $5000 Deductible
Holisms's First Official Recognition: ANA Grants Holistic Nursing Formal Status as a Nursing Speciality
Political-Economic Issues in Whole Systems Research Revealed by JACM Roundtable
"Integrative Medicine" Definition Changed by Conventional Academics at Request of CAM Academics
