Report on Professional Advancement: 900 Gather for Naturopathic Conference with Holistic MDs

Summary:  Over 900 NDs, MDs and others gathered August 12-18, 2008 at the Arizona Biltmore for the annual convention of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP). The Cleveland Clinic sponsored continuing medical education credits for medical doctors learning from NDs at the NDs conference, a first. Three score members of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) attended, mixing things up in meetings, on the dance floors and in the pools. A plenary panel and private luncheon convened leaders of 7 national professional and educational organizations to consider joint policy efforts. Expansion of a residency program was described. AANP executive director Karen Howard announced that a Congressional Resolution, developed by the AANP, had been introduced to advance wellness and empowerment in any medical reform plan. Presentations on international opportunities in at the Harvard-Dubai Healthcare City and in Nicaragua added additional spice to the offerings. Here is a look at the naturopathic medical profession through the lens of one of the most robust, future-thinking practitioner gatherings in recent years.  

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

1.     Some recent AANP history from an interested party ...

. Actually, it was 1989-1993, but with each integrative healthcare year equal to 6 normal years, that's almost a century. While I have not been directly involved with the AANP since 1996, I have continued to observe the profession's organizational development with interest.

And the developments in the last decade, which underpin the action at the recently concluded 2008 conference, have been robust. The profession organized a Naturopathic Coordinating Council for leaders of all of the profession's organizations to meet twice each year and share action steps. The AANP began an annual lobby day in Washington, DC. As a profession in which 75%-80% of its new doctors are females and which is seeking to raise the number of states in which its members can be licensed to practice, a potentially brilliant strategic move was made to succesfully place executive director Karen Howard on the board of the National Foundation for Women Legislators.

Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO, AANP president

Outreach to holistic medical doctors and holistic nurses has led to participation in new coalitions. Regular support from holistic MDs for expansion of licensing has been guaranteed. Meantime, the organization's operating budget has doubled since 2003 to $1,300,000 annually. The AANP has escaped red ink and developed a substantial operating reserve for an organization of its size.

The 2008 convention, in which the AANP partnered with the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA), offered a sense of what the might come next for the AANP

Dianne Connelly, PhD, MAc - focus on the language of healing

But while any healthcare profession in this era serves patients by viewing its work as necessarily focusing on team and new inter-disciplinary relationships, such a small group as the NDs must act through collaboration and coalition to realize its mission. And this requires a change in perception among its members. This change seemed to be facilitated at the conference by the selection of keynotes. The first day featured a conversation with Dianne Connelly, PhD, MAc, co-founder of Tai Sophia Institute. Connelly explored the "language of love for the treatment room" through images, poetry, song and anecdote, before the attendees dipped into their more typical fare of such topics as "Risk Factors Potentiating Human Papillomavirus Pathenogenesis and Evidence of Natural Teratment Options: A Review of the Literature" and "Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer - Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment Options." (Through the work of AHMA, attending MDs were awarded 12.5 CMEs for such content through

Helen Healy, ND - longtime Minnesota leader

3.   Two MDs honored with ND leaders in successful Minnesota licensing

Many non-MD professionals have little respect for the challenges academic MDs face in trying to secure new footholds for integrative education and practice inside conventional academic health institutions. Just so, few MDs grasp the Sisyphysian commitment it takes to go back to a state legislature session after session, organizing, fundraising and educating to pass licensing for a formerly unrecognized profession. With small numbers, and licensing in just 15 states, legislative success in new states for naturopathic physicians is arduous. When successful, it is celebrated.

Carolyn Torkelson, MD - assisting the licensing effort

Leaders of the Minnesota Association of Naturopathic Physicians' (MnANP) such as

4.   Naturopathic Education and Research Consortium advances ND residencies

Tori Hudson, ND - NERC co-founder

Another up-by-the-bootstraps aspect of the naturopathic profession's development which would not be known to their MD colleagues is the process for creation of residencies. Federal support allows medical doctors to take these for granted. Literally billions of governmental funding underwrites this part of conventional medical education. Not a single federal dollar supports naturopathic residencies.

In response, nationally-known women's health educator and clinician Tori Hudson, ND, and her colleague Margaret Beeson, ND, formed the

Naturopathic Education and Research Consortium (NERC) to offer community-based residencies for NDs. The 501c3 organization addresses a widespread interest in the profession to expand clinical training opportunities for graduating naturopathic physicians beyond the few residencies available through the profession's teaching clinics. Each NERC residency must be accredited through the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education (CNME), the profession's federally-recognized accrediting agency. A specific focus of the NERC residencies is on educating practitioners in "community and collaborative medicine" through work in practices of MD specialists in their communities.

Margaret Beeson, ND - NERC co-founder

The Hudson-Beeson team reported at the AANP meeting that the program, which began with residencies at their

Funding is always a challenge. Some product suppliers close to the profession are assisting. The NERC website lists 25 companies. Two of the profession's schools are supporting NERC. The profession has recognized NERC's important role: the organization participates as part of the profession's Naturopathic Coordinating Council.

Coda: One noteworthy advance in governmental support of the naturopathic profession was mentioned in a presentation by the profession's leading whole practice researcher, Carlo Calabrese, ND, MPH. Recent awards from the NIH National Centers for Complementary and Alternative Medicine doubled to six the number of naturopathic researchers who are paying back their student loan debt through pursuing research careers. Average loan debt of graduating NDs is reportedly in the $100,000 range.

5.  Practicing Partnership - An Exploration of Policy Integration

Bill Benda, MD - pushing policy collaboration

Since 2004, Bill Benda, MD, a board member of both the AANP and the AHMA, and a sometimes adviser to the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) and an Integrator adviser has doggedly pursued a vision of uniting the energy of these and other organizations in federal policy efforts. (See

Professional Associations

• American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (Lise Alshuler, ND, FABNO, president; Karen Howard, executive director; Bill Benda, MD, board member; David Matteson, strategic consultant; Jan Lipsen, lobbyist))
  
• American Holistic Medical Association (Hal Blatman, MD, president; Donna Nowack, executive director; Benda, board member)
  
• American Holistic Nurses Association (Lucia Thornton, RN, RSN, president; Jeanne Crawford, MA, MPH, executive director)
  
• American College for Advancement in Medicine (Jeannie Drisko, MD, president)
  

Academic Consortiums

• Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (Vic Sierpina, MD, chair)
• Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (John Weeks, executive director)

Suppliers/Industry

• Natural Products Association (Debra Short, president; David Seckman, executive director)

Seckman, Short, Blatman, Drisko, Sierpina, Lipsen, Howard, Thornton, Crawford, Weeks, Alschuler, Benda, Nowack, Matteson

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  Marcia Prenguber, ND, AANP 2008 Physician of the Year
  
  Physician of the Year - Marcia Prenguber, ND  Prenguber runs integrative care programs in oncology and women's health for Goshen Health System in Goshen, Indiana, a state which does not yet license naturopathic physicians. The program has received national honors. She is increasingly speaking on naturopathic and integrative approaches nationally and internationally. Prenguber also chairs the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education, which received its first 5-year recognition from the US Department of Education under her guidance.
  

• President's Award - Naturopathic Medical Student Association   The award was received by Cheri King, NMSA president, for its work in forging strong, formal relationship with its counter-part, the American Medical Student Association. See MD and ND Student Associations Forge Formal Ties, April 21, 2008.

• Research Awards - Patricia Herman, ND, PhD and Ather Ali, ND, MPH  The research track at the AANP becomes more rich with each year. (It is remarkable the difference funding can make to a profession's research output!) Herman was honored for her report on a health services research project for hospital-based acupuncture. I missed the subject for which Ali, who is based at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, was awarded.

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  Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO - personifying the Vis
  
  The William Mitchell Vis Medicatrix Naturae Award - Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO   This award, started by the AANP in honor of William Mitchell, ND (see Honoring William Mitchell, ND - 1947-2007, February 2, 2007) is irregularly granted to an individual who particularly embodies the healing power of nature in his or her work. Schor's writing and presence, and his organizing of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology, were deemed worthy of this honor, together with his nearly two decades of work - unsuccessful yet - toward licensing NDs in Colorado.  

• Corporate Sponsor of the Year - NCMIC Group  NCMIC is the major carrier for malpractice insurance for the naturopathic medical profession, as it is for chiropractic. Since the AANP set up a relationship with NCMIC, the only full-service insurer in this field, over a decade ago during the presidency of integrative leader Michael Traub, ND, FABNO, DHANP, the naturopathic profession has come to learn that NCMIC's value, and that of its president, Lou Sportelli, DC go beyond cash to include a great deal of astute advice. The AANP shared some of Sportelli's direct views in a panel moderated by Barbara Glickstein, RN, MPH, MS, radio host and co-founder with Woody Merrell, MD of the Continuum Center for Health and Healing. (The panel also included Robin Read, president of the National Foundation for Women Legislators.)

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