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background resources in PDF |
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some CAM/IM publication links |
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Written by John Weeks
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October 31, 2007 - Happy Halloween!
Ford Motor
Company is offering acupuncture to a limited group of employees
suffering from low back pain as part of a pilot project at their
Kentucky Truck Plant. Walter Talamonti,
MD, Ford's corporate medical director, has a sterling group of partners
for the project. First, he developed it through the Corporate Health
Improvement Project directed by Kenneth Pelletier, PhD, MD (hc).
Pelletier helped him bring in a top clinical trialist for acupuncture,
Brian Berman, MD, from the University of Maryland. The
plan was simple enough: run 100 employees through the program then go
to the NIH for a larger project. Only, as Talamonti shared with
attendees of the recent conference of the Institute for Health and
Productivity Management (IHPM), something is happening on the way to the forum.
Linking a major employer and its unions with an academic health center
in a state which did not yet license acupuncturists created some
unexpected obstacles. More ...
October 31, 2007
A recent
poll on health reform issues commissioned by the non-partisan
organization CodeBlueNow! found that 68% of Iowa voters favored
inclusion of licensed CAM practitioners in basic benefits plans. The
unusual inclusion of this complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
question in a broader reform survey created an opportunity to learn
more about the opinions of the pro-CAM voter. How? One can examine
"cross-tabulations" of outcomes on this question with outcomes of
others. For example, are these voters aligned with investment in
prevention? with a stronger role for the government? with employers in
the driver's seat? with for universal coverage? Thanks to CodeBlueNow!
we have an initial level of informed speculation. More ...
October 26, 2007
The Integrator article on the Florida
Medicaid Integrative Therapies Pilot prompted Georgetown law professor
Sherman Cohn, JD, to think of the many signs of the advance of
integrated care, from actions of his local hospital to interest in a
course he teaches to the treatment received by his grand daughter.
Cohn, a former Watergate lawyer, wrote up his comments and sent them to
me. As the self-appointed honorary chair of the why have we only come this far club, I find Cohn's column a good reminder. I've decided to take the afternoon off. What do you think? More ...
October 25, 2007
On October
17-19, 2007, the Institute for Health & Productivity Management
(IHPM) convened 465 corporate health leaders and vendors. What was
precedent setting, was that the conference included a track on
integrative and complementary medicine. IHPM's mission is to elevate
the idea that employees should be viewed as human assets, and that health enabling activities are good for a
corporation's bottom line. Anyone exploring this interest among the
large employer representatives in attendance will discover that there
is a culture of holistic and global practice which indicates a ripening
of opportunity for natural health and integrative approaches. Here are
notes and reflections from the IHPM conference about this emerging
opportunity. Next chance to explore and connect: March 31-April 2, 2008. More...
October 23, 2007
A recent Integrator column
by David Matteson opened a forum on the optimal relationship between
the natural products industry and the practitioner organizations which
represent those who use natural products in their treatment of
patients. Matteson suggested that failure to more deeply ally closes
off opportunities. Here, Adrian Langford probes into both the upside
and downside of the potential. Langford
is a 20-year managed care executive with the last decade in managing
complementary and integrative health care networks. He
is currently vice president for Alternative Medicine Integration Group
of Florida, the firm responsible for the Medicaid pilot. More ...
October 23, 2007
Reed Phillips,
DC, PhD on the "CAM ghetto" ... Michael Levin on the importance of the
NCCAM cost-effectiveness initiative ... Julie Chinnock, ND, MPH on who
is a "medical doctor" ... Massage educator Cathy Ayers, CMT on the new
curriculum on integrated care at the Potomac Massage Research Institute
... Bill Manahan, MD, on the Medicaid pilot and the extent of savings
he would anticipate from cost explorations of integrative care for
other conditions ... Integrative cancer advocate Ann Fonfa, holistic
health coach Linda Bark, RN on the Iowa poll results showing interest
of voters in licensed CAM
practitioners being included in basic benefits, plus an
experience-based warning from James Winterstein, DC, on potential
problems from inclusion ... Yoga therapist Janet
Carpenter on why Yoga therapy is a "third path" toward health. More ...
October 22, 2007
Medicaid costs
are soaring. States are hurting. Strains from pain-related conditions
factor in heavily. Meantime, surging prescriptions of pain
medications create new sets of adverse consequences. Can an integrated
care program featuring licensed acupuncturists, massage therapists and
holistically-oriented nurse managers be part of the solution? Since
2002, via legislation and a Medicaid waiver, the state of Florida has
engaged an "Integrative Therapies Pilot Project" to answer these
questions. Chicago-based Alternative Medicine Integration Group (AMI)
won the contract. This Integrator Special
Report looks at AMI's clinical integration and payment model, patient
and practitioner experience, and clinical outcomes and controversies in
the analysis of costs and cost-savings. Is this a model which Medicaid
should widely promote? Part 1 of this 5-part exploration is an overview
of issues and findings. More ...
October 16, 2007 mailing - Issue #35October 16, 2007
U
Connecticut becomes the 8th school in the Integrative Medicine in
Residency program at the University of Arizona ... Tai Sophia Institute
adds an MD to its AOM teaching clinic ... Mary Ann Wallace, MD, MA shares
significant expansion in integration activity through Samaritan Health
System in Corvallis, Oregon ... Oregon Health & Science University adds AOM and naturopathic medicine to create an integrative neurology clinic ... Michigan acupuncture clinic exemplifies old-style growth of community based complementary healthcare services ... Bridget
Duffy, MD, takes role as "chief experience officer" at Cleveland Clinic
... Lisa Rohleder, LAc, reports growth of the Community Acupuncture
Network model of community room acupuncture services. More ...
October 16, 2007
Donna Karan's
Urban Zen Initiative has announced next steps following their May 2007
10-day New York City integrative medicine event ... National
chiropractic groups have united to oppose United Healthcare's decision
to no longer cover pediatric adjustments ... Meantime, the Integrative
Pediatric Council, which includes a chiropractor board member,
announced its website ... Members of which disciplines are
participating in the NIH NCCAM's loan repayment awards programs? Here are the
answers ... CAM EXPO has changed its name to Integrative Healthcare
Symposium and is about to soft-launch a community-building website, Integrative
Practitioners Online. More ...
October 16, 2007
How connected is
the growing natural products industry and the industry that is
represented by the vast expansion of complementary, alternative,
integrative and holistic practitioners? Does the public separate the
two? Do elected officials? Are their destinies intertwined? What is the
optimal relationship between these two entities? David Matteson, a
consultant and strategic thinker with deep connections in both these
universes, has given a good deal of thought to the "parallel play" of
these two natural health care forces. His guest column opens an Integrator dialogue on the optimal relationship between these two entities. More ...
October 15, 2007
For the last 6
years, Anne Nedrow, MD, has been at the center of the most robust,
multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional complementary and integrative
clinical and research action in the United States. From her Portland,
Oregon base at Oregon Health & Science University, Nedrow has
worked closely with leaders of that city's accredited colleges of
chiropractic, naturopathic and acupuncture and Oriental medicine. In
doing so, Nedrow has helped create numerous, precedent-setting
relationships for members of complementary healthcare disciplines. Here
is the Integrator interview with one of integrative medicine's leading integrators. More ...
October 11, 2007
The October 25, 2007 event is entitled: A Debate: Homeopathy - Quackery or a Key to the Future of Medicine?
Organizers advertise that this is the first time that such an
exploration will be blessed by a medical school. The University of
Connecticut Health Center is the sponsor. Content from the 6
international participants, on basic sciences, clinical sciences and
historical evidence. At least one participant is on the record urging
that the NIH NCCAM be shut down. The event, which will be web-accessible for viewers, will
be moderated by reporters from National Public Radio. One cannot tell
yet if the differences will get a full House of Commons style airing ...
More ...
October 9, 2007
A broad-ranging
survey on health reform topics by the Gilmore Research Group found that
68% of voters believe basic health care benefits should include
coverage for any licensed health care professionals. Licensed
professionals directly noted in the survey of 601 Iowa voters were
"naturopathic physicians*, acupuncturists and chiropractors." The survey was
commissioned by Code Blue Now!, a national, non-partisan, not-for-profit
citizen organization formed to build public consensus in health care
policy. The Iowa population was strategically selected to have a
maximum influence on the healthcare reform debate. More ...
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