Issues #45-#46 - May-June 2008
June 5, 2008 mailing - Issue #46June 5, 2008
Integrator columnist Michael Levin
shares intriguing outcomes of a healthcare survey from the Deloitte
Center for Health Solutions. The authors examine opinions and practices
of over 3000 consumers, identifying use of alternative healthcare
services as a key identifier of behavior across a series of consumer
types. The six types range from "content and compliant" to "out and
about" (the most significant alt-med users) to "shop and save." Current
complementary medicine use represents a fraction of the openness
expressed by these consumers. Paul Keckley, PhD, co-author
and director of the Center was formerly the head of integrative
medicine planning for Vanderbilt University. Levin is correct: there is
much here to ponder about integrative care and the changing nature of
the healthcare consumer. More ...
June 3, 2008
From March 31-April
2, 2008, an unusual cross-disciplinary group of complementary, alternative and integrative
medicine (CAIM) practitioners and researchers gathered with
a much larger group of employer organizations at the Institute for Health and Productivity
Management's Fourth Annual Health Management Conference. The conference was entitled The
Employer-Sponsored Value-Based Health System: New Key to Global Competitiveness. The questions on the table were
whether and how CAIM practices might be useful to an employer’s cost-conscious
health and productivity agenda, and, if so, were the two parties ready to take
advantage of the opportunity presented. This reports some of that meeting. Next conference: Oct. 15-17, Scottsdale. More ...
May 31, 2008
The most
significant penetration of complementary and alternative health care
into mainstream US medicine is not integrative medical doctors, or
holistic nurses, or massage therapists or any other complementary,
integrative or holistic practitioner type. Rather, that position is
held by digitized CDs and now web-available downloads of guided imagery
tapes. The leader in the field is been HealthJourneys, founded by
Belleruth Naparstek, LISW, BCD. Here is a portrait of the growth of
that business since 1989, when a little audio cassette was introduced
into a Kaiser Permanente hospital. More ...
May 31, 2008
The
pace of action in integrative medicine and integrated healthcare picks
up monthly. This article begins a new, regular feature of the Integrator.
I scan the incoming and offer quick links on the business, academic,
research, professional, integrative, media and employer actions
relative to these fields. You click into the longer stories of interest
to you. 20 short notes here. I hope this new services is useful. More ...
May 31, 2008
Integrative medicine is producing its second wave of leaders. Among these is David Rakel, MD. Rakel is a board member of the
American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, an executive committee member of
the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine and editor
of the 1300 page tome Integrative Medicine. The Integrator spoke with
Rakel recently about the movement, and his day job, at the University of
Wisconsin School of Medicine, where his focus is on a new model of family medicine. More ...
May 25, 2008
Dialogue over
the integration of herbs and nutrients into clinical practice has
focused on potentially negative impacts on the value of prescribed
pharmaceuticals. Missing has been a view which respects these concerns,
but which puts the patient, rather than the pharmaceutical regime, in
the center of clinical concern. The recently published 930 page Herb,
Nutrient, and Drug Interactions: Clinical Implications and Therapeutic
Strategies
(Stargrove, McKee, Treasure) offers a measured walk for clinicians
which Tieraona Lowdog, MD, chair of the US Pharmacopoeia Dietary
Supplements Information Committee calls, in a forward, "appropriate
balance between recommendation and risk based on the overall strength of the
scientific evidence and their own clinical experience." More ...
May 25, 2008
[From my Integrative Practitioner Online (IPO) column] Do you recall the debates in communities across the United States in
those rare periods when the US Congress has considered limiting our
military expenses and moving toward a peacetime economy. Typically, Congress creates a commission to recommend closure of
certain military bases. Then, when a community hears that a nearby
base is slated for closure, reports of that base’s contributions to the
local economy hit the editorial pages. Local members of Congress begin
battling to keep “their” bases open, and the money flowing. I was reminded of this pattern of behavior when I saw an April 2008
report from the American Hospital Association (AHA). The report did
not highlight cures or positive movement on one or more health indicators.
Rather the AHA’s monthly TrendWatch ran under this title: “Analysis Celebrates the Economic Contribution of Hospitals to Communities.” Click here to go to IPO for the full column.
April 21, 2008 mailing - Issue #45
April 21, 2008
Bob Sager,
MD wanted integrative MD questions in the CodeBlueNow! voter surveys
... Wellpoint fraud expert Howard Levinson, DC comments on the state of
managed care ... Former holisitic nurses association leader Sonja
Simpson, RN, AHN-BC believes commentator Beth Wooton, ND was spot on
regarding practitioner education ...
Researcher Lyn Freeman, PhD has some suggestions about new routes to
project funding that are not NCCAM dependent ... Lisa Yater, LCSW, on
how the structure of conventional care delivery limits the opportunity
for inclusion. More ...
April 21, 2008
Two individuals
who have played significant roles in different areas of the integrative
care universe died recently. Robert (Bob) Timberlake was a leader in
jump-starting the re-emergence of naturopathic medicine, and
particularly its expansion of new licensing of naturopathic physicians
in the 1990s, serving later in a leadership capacity with Vital
Nutrients, a quality leader in natural products. He was a valued
colleague and friend ... Steve Gorman, founder of Alternative Health
Insurance Services, began talking about, and dreaming up ways to
expand, coverage of alternative medicine services over two decades ago.
Adviser Michael Levin offers appreciation for Gorman's life. More ...
April 21, 2008
Breakthrough:
American Medical Student Association formally recognizes the
Naturopathic Medical Student Association as an affiliate ... Fønnebø to propose a "peace treaty" in "research battleground" at May 18 SPARC meeting ... Harvard
integrative clinic featured ... UCLA program offers seven approaches to
back pain in consumer-focused event ... Formerly chiropractic-only
schools gain recognition for AOM and ND programs ... Yale's kick-off
event draws overflow crowd ... NIH to have May Yoga week ... U Mass
natural products Master's degree now largely internet-based ... BU and
Northwestern Feinberg medical schools bring to 41 the members of the Consortium of
Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine ... Master's in
Integrative Health in development for 2008 at National University, San
Diego. More ...
April, 15, 2008
Guest
writer Beth Clay's mention of homeopathy and her challenging of the
credentials of a top NIH NCCAM deputy, Jack Killen, MD, provoked strong
responses. I corresponded multiple times with an anonymous scientist
who was livid with the Integrator and Clay yet did not want his comments
published, even anonymously. I capture some of the exchange, as I
believe there may be many others who agree. Entrepreneur Taylor Walsh
wonders if the challenges to Killen are merited. Consultant David
Matteson, MPH credits the Integrator (and Clay) for the
discussion. Finally, author and homeopath Dana Ullman, MPH, details a
rebuttal to Killen's view, as quoted in Newsweek, that there is "no condition for which homeopathy has been proven to be an effective
treatment." More ...
April 15, 2008
Integrator columnist
Michael Levin, founder of Health Business Strategies, is a long-time
promoter of integrative medicine strategies that challenge the often
costly, unsafe and quality of life-damaging interventions promoted by
Big Pharma. So when Levin, who has been an executive with both pharmaceutical
and dietary supplement firms, saw the new AARP report on drug price
trends pre and post the implementation of the Medicare Drug Benefit, he
analyzed it both for what Pharma had already extracted, and for what
integrative medicine might. Here is Levin's brief report and view of
opportunities. More ...
April 15, 2008
When Yale University School of Medicine
recently chose to bring a chiropractor into their first Integrative Medicine
Symposium, Anthony Lisi, DC was the chosen presenter. As director of the
Veterans Health Administration's Chiropractic Service, Lisi sits in the
hot-seat for the most significant complementary and alternative healthcare
integration effort nationwide. To Lisi's account, practitioner-to-practitioner
relationships and patient reports are overcoming the deep reluctance which
greeted this Congressionally-mandated program. The Integrator caught up
with Lisi to learn more about this pioneering initiative. More ...
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