GMEF Initiates 18-month Professional Program in “Transformative Medicine”

The Global Medicine Education Foundation, directed by Pali Delevitt, PhD (cand.), and with Karen Lawson, MD, as director of medical education, is kicking off a new, 18-month educational program for conventional and CAM practitioners and leaders.

Entitled “Transformative Medicine-The Alchemy of Healing,” the

Pali Delevitt, founder

The program focuses, however, on moving the participant through a personal and professional transition. Programs goals are “to foster evolving holistic clinical, personal, and global perspectives in the healing arts, creating a foundation for being more effective and compassionate health care providers, and more informed and engaged consumers or advocates.” The promise is “to engage the participant in multi-level learning and personal transformation." 

Karen Lawson, MD

During the 18 months course, participants meet for 4 one week-long sessions in a Colorado retreat center. Their face-time is linked through online learning. While the target audience is conventional MDs and nurses, the program hopes to draw participants from diverse disciplines to deepen the multi-disciplinary experience.

Program developers and faculty are a multidisciplinary team, many of whom have met in a series of retreats to plan the program. Among them are: Betsy MacGregor, MD, Lori Fendell, PA, MPH, LAc, Malcolm Smith, ND, Sylver Quevedo, MD, MPH, and Daniel Jiao, OMD.  Delevitt’s background includes educating medical students in diverse settings. The program kicks off in June 2006.  CME credits are presently pending. The American Holistic Medical Association, for which Lawson recently served as president, is a co-sponsor of the program. Price is $6,995. www.globalmeded.org

Comment: The bet of the founders is that there is a market for a significant exploration of the CAM-IM fields among professionals who are interested in a tranformative experience rather than a focus on modalities. The price-point, notably, is also roughly a quarter of that for the only other program out there which promises similar content, the $28,000 associate fellowship at the Program in Integrative Medicine offered through the University of Arizona. GMEF's investment in team building among the faculty has been significant, involving a series of development retreats over the last two years. This investment may support their  ability to create a transformative experience. (Disclosure note: I had the opportunity to attend two of the retreats on behalf of one of the organization's philanthropic backers.)