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background resources in PDF |
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some CAM/IM publication links |
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Issues & 78 & #79-July August 2010 |
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Written by John Weeks
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Issue
#79
-September 7, 2010September 7, 2010
NCCAM issues DRAFT 2011-2015 strategic plan, includes "real world" and health-promoting outcomes; Briggs on
researching complex approaches; Canada Post outcomes show effectiveness
and cost-savings from whole practice of integrative naturopathic
medicine; Medicare to reimburse Pritikin for onsite services; Medicare to investigate chiropractic billing; doulas lay
infrastructure for reimbursement; NYU integrative urology program led by
naturopathic doctor Geovanni Epinosa; Mayo Clinic embraces Alexander
Technique; 4 integrative medicine organizations link for April 2011
iMosaic conference; holistic nurses endorse new coaching program;
American Chiropractic Association and National Wellness Institute
partner for wellness certification for chiropractors; Helbig's Institute
for Therapeutic Massage pioneers oncology massage certification and
services for the under-served in collaboration with Perlman's UMDNJ; U
Minnesota offers first nursing doctoral program specialty
in integrative practice; National University of Health Sciences'
innovative integrated DC/ND/AOM programs featured; George Family
Foundation grants $556,000 for nurse leadership in integrative practice;
former HHS secretary Thompson visits, lauds Standard Process; Alternative Therapies offers all nursing issue; and a note on Rustom Roy, 1924-2010. More
September 2, 2010
The comment period for the draft 2011-2015 Strategic Plan for the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is
open until September 30, 2010. The draft was posted August 30. This
article provides an outline of key points in the 34-page NCCAM document
including, as the plan's authors organize them: 4 conclusions from the
team's landscape assessment; 3 overarching goals; 5 guideposts for
keeping on track; 4 frames for priority-setting; and 5 strategic
objectives. This, the 3rd NCCAM strategic plan, is the first from the
era of Josephine Briggs, MD as director. There is fine stuff here to
celebrate relative to how challenges are described, real-world research
advocated, and an intriguing new focus advocated for examining the
potential of complementary therapies and integrative practices in
health-focused care and health promotion. I conclude with 5 reasons for
excitement and 3 areas of concern. Kudos to Briggs and her team. More
August 31. 2010
Readers
from multiple stakeholders in integrative medicine responded to the
findings
on integrative naturopathic medicine entitled "Model Whole Practice
Study Finds
Treatment by Naturopathic
Doctors Effective & Cost-Saving for Canada Post Employees with
Cardiovascular Disease." The project, led by Dugald Seely, BSc, ND, MSc
and Patricia Herman, MS, ND, PhD, was quickly recognized as useful in
outreach to employers, policy makers, the mainstream delivery system and
clinicians themselves. Some readers merely exulted. Here are comments
received from university president James Winterstein, DC, employer consultant Chris Skisak, naturopathic oncology specialist Chad Aschtgen, ND, FABNO, hospital COO Richard Gannotta, NP, DHA, FACHE,
North Carolina licensing leader Susan Delaney, ND, holistic doctor
Kjersten Gmeiner, MD, Israeli hospital mind-body coordinator Nimrod
Sheinman, ND and Foundations Project director Pamela Snider, ND. More
August 28, 2010
Lori
Knutson, RN, HN-BC on the importance of clinical interests in federal
panels and health coaching; Mitch Stargrove, ND, LAc on Consumer Reports'
"Dirty Dozen" supplements; Kjersten Gmeiner, MD on RWJF's sobering
inter-professional education project; Vanessa Esteves, MBA, ND
responding to Margaret Beeson, ND with a recommended policy for
practitioners selling supplements in their offices; Daniel Redwood, DC
and Beth Sommers, PhD, LAc on the negative comments from Integrator readers toward CMS head Don Berwick, MD; Dana Ullman, MPH on why Oxford Journals let go of eCam;
Kathie Swift, MS, RD, LDN on the changing dietetics landscape; and
Andree Sudoo on antagonism toward the Clayton School from licensed NDs. More
August 26, 2010
The American Association
of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), the national professional
association for the nation's 4000 naturopathic physicians, celebrated
its 25th anniversary conference in Portland, Oregon in August. This
report offers snapshots of the profession at a challenging juncture.
Included here are: perspectives of modern elders Jared Zeff and Joe
Pizzorno; budget issues amidst a declining economy and advancing public interest; candidate for change Michael Cronin elected as president-elect in hard-fought 60-40 vote; research report from Dugald Seely and Patricia Herman on the
most useful whole practice outcomes the profession has developed;
election of Michael Cronin, after a battle, to AANP president-elect
post; announcement of Bastyr University's plans for a new California
campus; clinical leader Mona Morstein's challenge to keynoter Josephine
Briggs, NIH NCCAM's director; House of Delegates action; kick-off for a
new Naturopathic Physicians Research Institute led by Carlo Calabrese;
meeting of senior editors on the Foundations of Naturopathic Medicine
project; and some commentary. More
August 22, 2010
Preliminary results from a randomized controlled pragmatic trial of the whole practice
of naturopathic medicine for Canada Post employees
with elevated cardiovascular risk
found treatment by integrative naturopathic doctors to be both
effective and cost-saving. Naturopathic treatment produced an overall $1025 cost benefit per participant. The results were reported by Dugald Seely,
BSc, ND, MSc and economist Patricia Herman, MS, ND, PhD, on August 12, 2010
at the conference of the American Association of Naturopathic
Physicians. The methods for researching this whole practice,
individualized treatment are a model for all integrative practitioners,
whether integrative MDs/DOs, broad scope DCs, AOM practitioners or
other multi-modal care-givers for whom reductive trials fail to capture
their practices. The model provides critical information for healthcare decision makers. For many in the naturopathic profession, the
outcomes are celebrated as a potential game-changer in that profession's efforts to
expand inclusion of their services by employers, public agencies and
insurers. More
August 18, 2010
The emerging field of inter-professional
education (IPE) is viewed by many as a chief contributor to the kind of
optimal integration needed to most enhance patient care. The integrative
practice fields tend to embrace this trend as part of the necessary
transformation of health care practice. Yet a report from a Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation project that merely sought to create better team care
between nurses and MDs is deeply sobering. What does it say about
integrating medical doctors and nurses with chiropractors and
naturopathic physicians, for instance? Are we up to taking on this
transformational challenge? Or have we all been, as is sometimes
wondered, smoking something? More
Issue
#78
-August 6, 2010August 6, 2010
The AMA's resolution in favor
of discrimination against other providers as amended ... Licensed
midwives take one from OB-GYNs in New York ... Legislation introduced to
get DCs into US Public Health Service ... Samueli Institute links with
Joint Chiefs of Staff for magazine supplement on "Total Force Fitness"
... True North shares paradigm with MGMA group ... Cavallo Point
hotel-spa and integrative center opens with Bradly Jacobs, MD, MPH in
key role ... Massage therapists beat back nasty allegations from local
police to protect new law in California ... New integrative dietetics
practice group in the American Dietetics Association ...
Author-clinician Ilene Serlin, PhD makes headway in introducing whole
health practices at APA ... University of Chicago becomes 45th member of
the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine ...
Bastyr now home to a leading midwifery school and Simkin Center doula
training ... Mail order Clayton College shuts doors, to delight of
naturopathic doctors ... 6th IN-CAM Research Symposium in November 2010
... Group Health Institute team identifies diverse positive outcomes
from CAM-IM not typically captured in studies ... Research finds health
in "forest bathing" ... PMG Data Services purchases Innovision ...
Holistic Primary Care marks 10th year of publication ... Consumer Reports blasts "dirty dozen" of dietary supplements; Blumenthal responds ... Natural Foods Merchandiser
reports modest growth in industry in 2009 ... Briggs and NCCAM in media
whipsaw ... Comments on Krakow's "alternative medicine as a free market
approach" ... Lewis Bazakos, DC given another significant award, this
from New York Chiropractic College ... More
July 31, 2010
Duke Health Raleigh Hospital COO Richard
J. Gannotta, NP, DHA discovered via a data search that the literature
is exceedingly thin on inpatient integrative medicine programs. He
wanted data on how programs are faring in the 3 critical areas of
clinical effectiveness, patient satisfaction and, most importantly,
financial performance. Gannotta identified 8 programs and assembled
a research team through which they engaged structured interviews with
the clinical and business leaders. The results are published here, in
full, as Perceptions of Medical Directors and Hospital Executives Regarding the Value of Inpatient Integrative Medicine Programs. As Gannotta and his team noted, "the
number of responses
associated with financial performance and depth of those responses
could be an
indicator of participant concern as it relates to program vulnerability
and
sustainability in uncertain economic times." This is a useful look
inside the mind and experience of integrative medicine integration in
the pioneering hospitals with inpatient programs. More
July 27, 2010
The Integrator advocacy
of the controversial Donald Berwick, MD for director of the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sparked outspoken pushback from 3
readers: Minnesota-based integrative clinic leader Chris Foley, MD,
former American College for the Advancement in Medicine president Ron
Hoffman, MD and consultant Cindy Krueger, MPH. Opposition tended to
break on ideologic lines. Is support of Berwick out of touch with the
integrative practice community? Interestingly, Berwick's nomination is blasted by a leading
anti-alternative medicine blogger. I give their push-back a little
pushback. There is evidence that Big
Government can be quite friendly to inclusion of integrative practices.
Do you think Berwick will be bad for integrative care? More
July 26, 2010
Margaret Beeson, ND, owns and operates a Yellowstone Naturopathic Clinic, a complex which includes a 6 NDs, a spa, associated chiropractic and dental offices and a natural products dispensary. In this contribution to the Integrator
dialogue on the potential conflict of interest issues in doctors
selling products for a profit, Beeson offers 3 core arguments. The most
important is an honest acknowledgment that product incomes helps buy the
time she takes with patients and the staff to support their care. Are
natural product sales the "procedure" that floats holistic practice?
Heck, could they be part of the economic strategy to lure more MDs to
primary care? More
July 25, 2010
Scott Shannon, MD, president-elect of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) wants to see "ecological
medicine" integrated into "the next iteration of holism." A fall
conference co-sponsored by UCSF Osher Center and the Whole Child Center
led by integrative pediatrician Larry Rosen, MD will explore "ecological
health for the whole child." The Integrated Healthcare Policy
Consortium is asking members of the integrative practice community if
the organization should focus its energy on environmental issues.
Something seems to be in the air, deepening the connection
between.integrative medicine and these broader ecological themes. The
connection is natural, but is this the time for these still young and
resource-stretched organizations to be taking on new dimensions? More
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