background resources in PDF |
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some CAM/IM publication links |
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Issues #76 & #77 - May-June 2010 |
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Written by John Weeks
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Issue
#77
-July 3, 2010July 5, 2010
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium calls
for input in next phase of national policy work for integrative care ...
AMA to urge repeal of Section 2706/non-discrimination; chiropractic
organization says "over our dead bodies" ... Holistic doctors offer
useful review of prevention language in federal healthcare reform law
... Yoga therapy in the Navy's new medical home in Bethesda ...
Naturopathic doctors as primary care boosted in publication ...
Bravewell opens applications for integrative medicine fellowships, takes
more control of selection ... Integrative Therapeutics-funded ND
residency update ... National University of Health Sciences receives
$500,000 from Standard Process ... New organization of massage educators
in hopeful start with first conference, election of new Board ...
Consortium of educators from licensed complementary healthcare disciplines
announces top-flight Council of Advisers to help with integration
strategies ... New NCCAM fact sheet on credentialing CAM practitioners
... Explore article on American Board of Integrative Holistic
Medicine describes new directions for this standard-setter for
integrative medical doctors ... AMA officially endorses "personalized
medicine" ... Homeopathic accreditation and certification organizations
organize summit to position field ... E-CAM now part of Hindawi
... NDNR reaches 5th year as key publication for NDs, other
natural medicine doctors ... Information Television Network initiates
new DVD series on natural health approaches ... Joyce Frye, DO reports
on LIGA, the international homeopathic conference ... Philanthropist-author Bill George and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche to
co-lead conference on Mindful Leadership ... Conference on integrative pediatrics explores
environmental influences ... Knowles and Hall to lead Natural Products
Foundation ... Blumenthal honored by pharmacognosy group with Varro
Tyler Award ... Jean Watson selected as AHNA's Holistic Nurse of 2010. More
July 3, 2010
I
split my professional life between the Integrator
and related writing and the organization featured here, the
Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care
(ACCAHC). This Quarterly
Report describes how the release of the Clinicians'
and Educators' Desk Reference on the Licensed Complementary and
Alternative Healthcare Professions is opening significant
discussions about inter-professional education inside schools and
universities nationwide; new developments in a dialogue with the NIH
NCCAM leadership; initial Council of Advisers includes Cooper, Haramati,
Jonas, Kligler, Knutson, Kreitzer, Nedrow, Perlman; document on Competencies
for Optimal Practices in Integrated Environments that is expected
to shape ACCAHC activity going forward developed through extensive
multidisciplinary process; plus latest thinking on themes for ACCAHC's
June 26-28, 2011 Conference for Educators. More
July 2, 2010
Five Branches University president Ron Zaidman, MTCM,
MBA supports a two-tiered training for the AOM field ... NCMIC president
Lou Sportelli, DC on whether hospitals will lead healthcare's
transformation ... AANP executive
director Karen Howard on her organization's strategy for defining
"integrative healthcare practitioner" in federal regulations
...Community Acupuncture Network co-founder Lisa Rohleder, LAc,
clarifies fees, visits, income at her anchor clinic ... BC chiropractic
association director Don Nixdorf, DC on the AMA campaign to overturn
2706/non-discrimination ... Anonymous acupuncturist uses discussion of
fellowships to vent opposition to short-course acupuncture by MDs,
others ... More
June 26, 2010
Here is your chance to
influence the direction of the most significant lobbying coalition
working to advance integrated healthcare in federal policy. The
Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC -www.ihpc.info) has posted
a 10 question Survey Monkey poll through which they are soliciting your input. The
organization, led by Janet Kahn, PhD, executive director and Len
Wisneski, MD, chair, also sent a report to their e-list on their recent
action to advance integrative practices and integrated treatment. One
IHPC priority: lobbying specific members of the integrative practice
community onto new panels established in the Obama-Pelosi healthcare
overhaul bill. Here is your link to the survey and the IHPC update. Be
heard! More
June 25, 2010
An issue since the idea of an
"integrative medical doctor" emerged 15 years ago is what exactly the
term denotes. Is this an MD who recommends some meditation or an herb
now and then? What is the required training to earn the title? A
standard was set by Andrew Weil, MD, Victoria Maizes, MD, MPH and others
when they created the Integrative
Medicine Fellowship at the University of
Arizona School of Medicine. The program recently survey the 466 fellows
who have completed this program. Here is the profile that emerged from
the 254 respondents. More
June 16, 2010
Barack Obama's nomination of
Don Berwick, MD, MPH as administrator of
the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) merits the active
support of the integrative practice community. Berwick became known to
many in these fields through the 2009 IOM Summit where he articulated 8
"principles for integrative medicine." The Harvard professor's
visibility had already soared nationally when he responded practically
and ambitiously to the IOM's 2000 report on the awful extent of hospital
and physician-caused deaths by organizing the successful 100,000 Lives
Campaign. In 2009, personal experience led him to declare in Health
Affairs his "extremist" views on the importance of truly putting
patients at the center of care. Not surprisingly, the nomination of this
right-man-at-the-right-time is already proving extremely contentious.
Obama and Berwick may need support from every quarter when the hearings
begin later this summer. Pay attention. Be heard. Berwick is a legacy
choice for this moment in US healthcare. More
June 7, 2010
The concepts of prevention and health promotion
and even a paradigm shift away from a disease orientation is at the
heart of much integrative practice. Thus an article in the June 2010
issue of the e-newsletter of the American Holistic Medicine Association
(AHMA) is a useful document. Entitled simply "Prevention Provisions in
HR 3590," the article notes 10 separate places where the healthcare
overhaul law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act,
touches on the subject of prevention. Following AHMA permission, I
re-print the article here. While there is little here yet that embodies a
progressive approach to primary prevention, many are clearly steps in
the right direction. More
June 3, 2010
A
disturbing new report from Medco documents the growing use of major
pharmaceuticals in the treatment of children. Use with childhood chronic
diseases is highlighted with a particular area of concern the drug
treatment of Type 2 diabetes associated with childhood obesity. Integrator
columnist Michael Levin, a healthcare consultant with Health Business
Strategies, seizes on the report's recommendation that "health plans
actively promote lifestyle change." Levin urges the right integrative
medicine entrepreneurs to step up to a potentially lucrative business
opportunity. More
Issue
#76
-June
2, 2010
June 2, 2010
AMA
specialists seek continued discrimination against integrative
practitioners in effort to repeal Section 2706 of healthcare overhaul
... Ornish program receives penultimate boost toward full coverage from
CMS/Medicare ... AANP proposes a definition of "integrative
practitioner" to shape federal policy post reform .. Integrator
publishes resource on the mentions of CAM/IM in the healthcare overhaul
law ... Notes on the overhaul's impact on health psychologists and
LAcs from Bastyr University ... Brief comment/update on the Integrative
Medicine Clinic of Santa Rosa ... Medical schools begin offering tenure
to integrative medicine leaders ... College links with integrative
medicine clinic to offer certificate course for "patient navigators"
...
Duke's Integrative Health Coach program booked solid, certification
program begins soon ... NCCAM begins publishing priorities for the
2011-2015 strategic plan, holds session on CAM and behavioral change
...
Botanical sales up in 2009 to over $5-billion .. Survey finds MD
knowledge of herbs remains low ... Standard Process honored for
commitment to advancing integrative medicine ... Bravewell publishes 50
page booklet on integrative medicine ... Helfgott's Tippens reports
socio-demographic data on clients of community acupuncture model ..
Fall
2010 American Public Health Association conference will include 16
segments on alternative healthcare practices and chiropractic ...
Integrative medicine featured in Minnesota Monthly and group
visits in the Denver Post ... Micozzi's pioneering Fundamentals
of
Complementary & Integrative Medicine textbook in 4th edition
with forward from former JAMA editor George Lundberg ... Mark
Hyman, MD takes role as chair of the Institute for Functional Medicine
... Integrative behavioral health leader Joseph DeNucci announces new
retreat center ... More
May 28, 2010
The ink is hardly dry on the landmark Non-Discrimination
in Health Care provision (Section 2706)
of the Patient Protection and Healthcare Affordability Act, and MD
specialists are pushing its repeal. Anesthesiologists
and
ophthalmologists have asked the AMA to initiate a major lobbying
campaign at the executive, Congressional and grassroots levels. The
request is framed as part of the AMA's ongoing Scope of practice
partnership against other professions. Section
2706
is healthcare reform's most significant inclusiveness measure for
DCs, NDs, LAcs, massage therapists and licensed midwives, potentially
opening consumer choice to over 50-million more Americans. In the name
of patient protection, the two AMA specialty societies were targeting
their direct competitors, nurse anesthetists and optometrists. Here is
the proposed Resolution as it will go to the AMA House of Delegates in
June 2010. More
May 26, 2010
Tom
Ballard, ND shares a fascinating
encounter with Wikipedia over whether Paracelsus was the original
medical quack ... Acupuncturist Gary
Wagman, LAc calls Beth Israel's fellowship for licensed acupuncturists a
shame ... Bethany Leddy, LAc and
consultant Linda Rapuano offer correction that the original inpatient
fellowship for LAcs was not at Beth Israel but at St. Vincent ...
Consumer Perry Chapdelaine, Sr. urges that NCCAM examine those practice
which seek to work with patients to find and treat the causes of
disease.
More
May 20, 2010
In 2004, the
chiropractic profession and various Veterans' Service Organizations
shouldered their way into the Veterans Health Administration through an
act of Congress. Now, 4 years
later, what do we know? How experienced are the VHA chiropractors? With what conditions are patients presenting? From which specialties are referrals
originating? Via what models are
the chiropractors
employed and how much as they being paid? How
well integrated are they with the other
medical services? To what extent
are they using these
positions to educate others? Here is an at-a-glance chart of answers to
these and other questions as reported by a
team including Anthony Lisi, DC, Christine Goertz, DC, PhD and
others. Lisi heads up the VHA's chiropractic program. More
May 18, 2010
The American Hospital
Association is gathering its members at a Leadership Summit this July,
the theme of which is "Hospitals Leading Health Care's Transformation."
The claim in the title struck me as quite unlikely. Two images came to
mind: one of mass seppuku, the other of the artist Christo with his
sights on a sprawling metropolitan hospital building much as he once
focused his conceptual art on the German Reichstag. Here are some
musings on the probabilities of hospitals leading health care
transformation, and some intimations about where we might begin to find a
leading coalition.
More
May 12, 2010
This article is meant as a
reference resource on integrative practice and healthcare policy.
Included are locations and exact language in the sections of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Healthcare Act (HR 3590) that will shape policy action
relative to integrative practices in coming years. Complementary and alternative medicine
practitioners and integrative practices
are included in these sections (2706, 3502, 4001, 4206, 5101, 6301 and
2301) relative to non-discrimination, workforce planning, community
medical homes, wellness, prevention and health promotion, comparative
effectiveness research and birthing services. Here are the facts,
without interpretation or commentary. (If there are others, let me
know.) What they will mean is up to us. The challenge ahead is to bring
what one integrative practice lobbyist called "these major steps toward
recognition" to life. More
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