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background resources in PDF |
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Integrative Medicine, Complementary Alternative Medicine and Health Round-up #59: September 2012 |
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Written by John Weeks
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Integrative Medicine, Complementary Alternative Medicine and Health Round-up #59: September 2012Policy
- IOM "horizontal" workshop on interprofessional education and care (IPE/C) urges "holistic perspective" and "widening the circle"
- Functional medicine physician and author Mark Hyman, MD offers exceptional holistic prescription for health creation
- Integrative Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) posts 2012 Report and future plans
- Data points in the A.C.A. on the uses of key terms
Business
- ASH, dominant provider of licensed CAM benefits, opens South Carolina Technology Center
- Cheesecake Factory Medicine: Atul Gawande's New Yorker piece goes
inside corporatized, Big Brother medicine
- American Botanical Council reports that herbal dietary supplement retail sales jumped 4.5% in 2011
Integrative Centers
- Briefly noted developments on health system integrative medicine programs
Education
- Milestone: Ornish program credited for allowing first CME-approved conference to teach MDs to do yoga
Research
- NCCAM's Briggs
wonders about surprising practices that enter the mainstream
- Canadian research organization adds new measures to Outcomes Database
- Peering in on "CAM" in pediatrics in Germany
- Integrator
"did
not get it right" about new NCCAM pain leader Catherine Bushnell
Professions
-
Organizations at DNC's Presidential Experience Marketplace support acupuncture access
Media
-
Alschuler-Gazella team link for Five to Thrive, daily internet radio show on integrative cancer care
- Doctored (formerly Medical, Inc.) to premier in New York City, features Wilk case, integration
- Medical Coding & Billing site publishes perspective on top 10 cities for "alternative medicine"
- Modern Heathcare Professional stakes out new business model in integrative publishing arena
- Joseph Pizzorno, ND's publications update: new editions of influential texts, plus Clinical Pathophysiology
People
-
Integrative health philanthropist Ruth Westreich joins Bastyr University and Samueli Institute boards
- AANP 2012 Awards Announced: Rodriguez Malave, Stargrove, Breed, Morstein, Pure Encapsulations and Weeks
______________________________
Policy
 Workshop sponsor
"We need to widen the circle." "We need a more holistic perspective." "We need to protect ourselves from a new elitism." These were among the closing comments from two of the historic leaders in the movement for interprofessional education/care (IPE/C) in the US near the end of the August 29-30, 2012 Institute of Medicine (IOM) workshop called
Educating for Practice: Improving Health by Linking Education to Practice Using Interprofessional Education. The participants in the 1.5 day event consisted of a group that Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) president emeritus Jordan Cohen MD has called the most diverse mix of disciplines and interests ever convened through the IOM. Jordan and nurse-educator Afaf Meleis, PhD, DrPS (Hon), FAAN, co-chair the convening project, the IOM Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education. The 31 sponsor organizations, listed on the right side of this page, range from the AAMC to similar organizations from such fields as
nursing, social work, physical therapy, family medicine, and allied health. Included relative to integrative health is the Academic Consortium Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC).
 Meleis: Co-chair of the convening Global Forum
Comment: The present IPE/C movement broke first as en effort to get medical doctors and nurses to have better respect for each other and smoother collaboration. To Err is Human has shown that awful doses of morbidity and mortality come from professions being educated in silos and operating antagonistically. Discussion at the workshop, which I attended as ACCAHC's alternate member, included significant focus on the centrality of the patient, his or her family and community. This is especially with chronic conditions in the outpatient environment. Discussion returned frequently also to the importance of social justice as a core value across all disciplines. Phenomenal experience to have been there and look forward to the others. Feels like we might actually be changing something.
 Hyman: publishes a manifesto
The title of the Huffington Post blog piece by Mark Hyman, MD is Money, Politics and Health Care: A Disease Creation Economy. He offers a whole system perspective that provides a case statement and then a series of prescriptions. The political economic context that is behind the system's "disease creation" includes the Citizens United decision that allows even more corporate and oligarchic manipulation of politics. Hyman also touches on such issues as food policy, energy policy ("clean coal") and sustainability. Hyman includes a section on the "perverse incentives" in our payment system. Then, to the prescriptive: Hyman offers a score of suggestions for "Supporting Innovations that Create Health." And then in "Creating Health: Getting Money Out of Politics," he ticks off specific "strategies that could have the biggest impact on cost and outcomes."
Comment: Much of this will not be new to many Integrator readers. Seeing the ideas aggregated in one place is useful, though potentially overwhelming. Notably, Hyman calls for us to "Empower the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council" that was created in the Affordable Care Act. Like Hyman's article, that council appreciates that health can only be achieved when Health and Human Services is aligned with health-creating policies in departments of Energy, and Education, and Transportation and elsewhere. Missing is a coalition-building and lobbying strategy. Hyman, who has access to the likes of Bill Clinton and Tom Harkin, would serve his core, healthcare message by fronting IHPC (see below) and helping it gain more bandwidth. As I understand that organization, it is the one 501c4 lobbying effort that is probably 98% aligned with this agenda, and has a similar whole system vision. Notably, it's senior policy adviser and former executive director Janet Kahn, PhD, is on the Council. (Thanks to Bob May, ND for bringing Hyman's piece to my attention.)
 Walsh: But what are the action steps?
 Ask not what IHPC can do for you ...
The Integrative Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC), which changed its name in August 2012 from Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium, has filed an early IHPC Annual Progress Report 2012. Among chief accomplishments were three Congressional Briefings at which "attendance has steadily grown." IHPC says it has presently reached some 200 legislative aides and staffers via the briefings. These are held on the Hill. The organization is led by new executive director Alyssa Wostrel and chaired by integrative medicine clinician and educator Len Wisneski, MD. It presently has 14 Partners for Health. The alphabet soup of IHPC's Partners is: AAAOM, NMSA,
ICPA, AMSA, AAPM, NCBTMB, AANP, NACPM, AIH, NCH, Palmer College, and
Bastyr and Life Universities. Dues from these organizations produce
the lion's share of their meager budget, anticipated at $50,000 in
2012. Wostrel is shooting to bring that up to $150,000 with
project funds for 2013.
Another key accomplishment was publication of a policy document produced in collaboration with Palmer College and The Institute for Integrative Health: Affordable Care and Beyond: A Stakeholder Conference on Integrated Health Care Report. Wostrel is leading an effort to energize working groups from that conference to move the recommendations. In addition, IHPC is in dialogue with former Washington State Insurance Commissioner Deborah Seen about coming on as a lobbyist "in advancing the regulatory implementation of key integrative health care provisions of the ACA." Other changes are a new IHPC Policy Council plus a "strategic alliance with the American Sustainable Business Council."
 Wostrel: hired in 2012
Comment: Ask not what IHPC is doing for you. Ask what you can do for IHPC. It's a critical force, with no "competition" as a policy and lobbying consortium. IHPC does a lot, obviously, on next to nothing. My how the "integrative health community" limits itself through lack of collaboration. Imagine if you, any organizations with which you are affiliated, a spare visionary philanthropist or two, maybe some far-thinking companies, and others, funded this work?
Data points in the A.C.A. on the uses of key terms
Integrator adviser Pamela Snider, ND wrote seeking quick information on the the number of times some key phrases were mentioned in the health care law of the land, the recently upheld Affordable Care Act. She shortly thereafter responded with these data points that I thought many Integrator readers might find of passing interest:
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Complementary and alternative: 4
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Integrative health care practitioner or practices: 14
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Health promotion: 42
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Wellness: 95
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Prevention:~246
The substantive sections relative to the first two categories are here.
Comment: It would be interesting to see the Prevention" category in particular parsed into those that are related to provider interventions (immunization, testing) and those connected to the lifestyle interventions humans can make to better their own health - which can be supported by integrative health practitioners. The health promotion and wellness uses would similarly fall into distinct categories (employer-related, community-related, etc.).
Business
 DeVries: smart business operator
American Specialty Health, the $250-million San Diego company that took over dominance of the provision of managed complementary and alternative medicine services nationally in the late 1990s, announced September 4, 2012 that it is "teaming up with
Innovista at the University of South Carolina (USC) to create a health
technology innovation center that will bring new jobs to Columbia (South Carolina)." CEO and chairman George DeVries commented: "As technology
plays an increasingly larger role in our service capabilities, and in the
day-to-day lives of people, ASH must deliver innovative and robust capabilities
that will allow us to keep up with demand and also grow our services in new
ways." The firm, with over 900 employees, is expected to have $w230-million in revenues in 2012. ASH provides benefits to over 31-million members through its expansive corporate and insurance programs that now are led by other
Comment: Chiropractors, and especially those in California, were the foundation of this company; despite that, the DCs' antagonism toward many of DeVries business strategies, including pricing, is profound. But after the chiro start, De Vries' ASH team has continued to make a series of smart, expansive investments into health promotion and wellness. The South Carolina move reflects this: a university affiliation in a growing business sector in a cheap-labor state. If the game is about dying with the most things, you have to credit DeVries' vision and business acumen.
 Gawande: the borg meets medicine
Imagine an era in which, at a remote site, a handful of healthcare
professionals gaze at walls banked with monitors. These don't merely peer into a single facility. They watch a group of facilities and many sites within each of the hospitals and
outpatient clinics. Those monitoring don't only peer in. They can directly pipe in,
with clinical and management suggestions. And they do. As influential medical reporter and policy leader Atul Gawande reports, such an offsite monitoring and intervention strategy is presently utilized in particular by the growing,
for-profit hospital chains. These may be owned by investment banks or traded on Wall Street. In Can Hospital Chains Improve the Medical Industry, Gawande walks into the
pros and cons of this form of healthcare management.
He first describes how such practices are used by
large corporations to manage a restaurant chain. He focuses on the Cheesecake
Factory then enters a hospital chain centered in the Boston area. Gawande reports a conversation with one doctor: "This is not at all the normal way of doing things in medicine. (‘You're
scaring me,' [the doctor] said, when I told him.) But it's exactly what the new health-care
chains are now hoping to do on a mass scale. They want to create Cheesecake
Factories for health care."
Comment:
This is a scary read - and a good reason why so many Integrator
readers are repulsed by my support of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In many
ways, the ACA is pushing this direction as a correction to the utterly out of
control business practices in the $2.8-trillion so-called
"not-for-profit" medical industry. Did it have to come to this? No.
Leaders throughout medicine have known they are missing the collective, population-based,
preventive point of good care. And they looked the other way. The continue, as IBM healthcare leader Paul Grundy, MD, MPH notes here, to be "milking machines." The uncomfortable
truth is, we are likely to save lives, reduce waste, limit errors, and more
often do the right thing when the offsite Borg that Gawande describes has the
opportunity to monitor and influence the warm bodies in the room with the
patient. Sigh.
 Blumenthal: herb sale up
For the 8th consecutive year, herbal supplement sales have increased according to Austin,
Texas-based American Botanical Council (ABC). The annual market report
of a team led by ABC president Mark Blumenthal estimated total 2011 retail sales at nearly $5.3 billion. The
mainstream market, such as drugstores, increased roughly 3% over 2010.
Sales in natural food stores rose by
5.5%. Concluded Blumenthal: "These sales
data indicate continued strong consumer demand for herbs and other
natural
plant-derived ingredients as an essential part of their self-care." He
added: "What is even more
remarkable is that herbal supplement sales grew while the economy
is still considered in recession, a sign of how highly American
consumers value
these safe, low-cost materials." A third
channel, "direct sales," reflects sales via professionals, multilevel
marketing, mail order catalogs, Internet sites, radio and television
direct sales outlets, network
marketing firms that sell directly to the consumer. This channel represented roughly half of all sales and was up 4.4%. The ABC report is
based on statistics from the Nutrition Business Journal (NBJ) and market research
firms SymphonyIRI, and SPINSscan Natural.
Integrative Centers
 The Amoils: book turns a skeptic
These notes are from Google Alerts on selected topics during August 2012.
- The Wellness Team at Cleveland Clinic write on the "start of something good" through their integrative medicine consult program.
- The book by Alliance Institute's integrative medicine team Steve Amoils, MD and Sandy Amoils, Get Well, Stay Well: Optimal Health Through Transformational Medicine gets a positive review from a skeptic in Health Care, Not Sick Care.
- The Society of Integrative Oncology's 2012 program in conjunction with the University of new Mexico IM program is featured in this release.
- An article on the successful establishment of a community based integrative clinic is here.
- The integrative medicine program at u Kansas led by Jeanne Drisko, MD received some positive media treatment focusing on food as medicine.
-
The program for pediatric integrative medicine pediatric nephrologist Matthew Hand, MD at New Hampshire's
Hospital for Children, Manchester, was written up in the Union Leader then spread widely via the homeopathy network.
- A Johns Hopkins website features a resource on CAM practitioners websites.
- Testing for BPA and potential toxicity at the Greenwich Hospital integrative medicine program is the focus of this piece by Henri Roca, MD.
-
Paula O'Neal, MD, co-director of The Division of Integrative Medicine
at New Jersey's Raritan Bay Medical Center, highlighted how the
department couples
traditional western medicine with alternative therapies such as
acupuncture on a recent radio show.
- University Hospitals Connor Integrative Medicine Center in Ohio advertised a life-coaching program on its site.
- Stamford Hospital's Integrative Cardiology program is profiled here.
- The Fox News affiliate in Idaho reported that the hospitals in the St. Luke's network are studying the value of integrative therapies.
- The Cleveland Clinic kicked off advertising for the 10th Annual Dr. Roizan's Preventive and Integrative Medicine Conference to be held in December 2012.
- Duke's new round of Integrative Health Coach Professional Training will focus on group coaching.
Education
 Khalsa: breakthrough CMED offering
"I've
had the three previous CME applications that covered the topic of yoga approved by
the American Academy of Family Physicians. They
didn't previously approve non-medically trained presenters. Last year they
specifically wrote that the approval was for 'presenting the evidence that yoga is
effective, but not approved to teach the practice itself.' This
year I included non-medically trained yoga teachers/therapists, and I included
specific wording in the needs assessment/statement of purpose, and the course
objectives, that participants would be learning yoga tools and breathing
techniques for wellness and stress reduction."
These are the words of integrative clinician and Satkirin Khalsa, MD, the director of Albuquerque Integrated HealthMedicine. She wrote them to Integrator adviser and integrative center consultant Glenn Sabin, of Fon Therapeutics about her course at the Mountain Pose Medicine and Yoga Festival. Khalsa credits the program of Dean Ornish, MD and particularly its Medicare coverage, for the CME credit approval: "I know of no other CME course that's been accredited by a national organization
like the AAFP, approving yoga teachers to teach for CME. Based
on the Ornish program, and the stress reduction/yoga 'pillar' that is now
approved by Medicare. Physician
wellness CME courses are a new concept." Khalsa submitted these as CME programs for Provider Wellness. Sabin's blog post on the topic is here.
Comment: First, good for Khalsa, good for health, and thanks Glenn. The emergent provider wellness theme recalled to mind a self-care point colleagues in the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care recently made. Reviewing some widely referenced competencies for interprofessional care developed by medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others from within the biomedical model, they saw self-care missing. To a competency field related to "Values and Ethics," these integrative health educators added this simple line: "VE11. Demonstrate personal behaviors and self-care practices that reflect optimal health and wellness." There is little question that providing CME credit for yoga, as for other processes for healers to heal their selves, is a quiet step in the right direction toward righting our system. Fine perseverance from Khalsa.
Research
 Briggs: honoring (some of) the fringe
The director of the NIH
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Josephine Briggs,
MD, recently used the NCCAM blog to talk out "Quirky Ideas from outside the Mainstream" that, "through a combination of
clinical experience and scientific pursuit, led to changes in health care." She
specifically called out the contributions of Joseph Pilates (resistance
training - 1915), Fernand Lamaze (childbirth practices -1940), Edwina Froehlich,
La Leche League founder (breast feeding -1950s), and Saunders, Wald,
Kubler-Ross, 1960s (palliative care). Briggs cites a defensive remark about exploring the unusual in a keynote from David
Eisenberg, MD at the recent International Research Congress on Complementary
and Integrative Medicine: "An act of inquiry is not an act of advocacy." She
concludes: "Ultimately, being able to
bring both an open mind and a skeptical eye to the long-term challenge of
evidence building is crucial, and we must be willing to do so, no matter what
perspective we bring to the scientific debate."
Comment: Good for Briggs to
walk into this debate and remind skeptics. Interestingly, this was something of
a return to the memory of 1992 beginnings of the NIH's formal examination of
"unconventional medicine." US Senator Tom Harkin secured funding by referencing
non-conventional practices that had become
mainstream. None that he referenced were actually CAM, to not tip off CAM's opponents. Briggs' is an interesting list that might have been expanded more broadly. Stress, food, diet, and lifestyle are all practices first elevated in the
"alternative medicine" universe. So is appreciation of the detrimental impacts of toxins. Just as small
businesses are credited with generating the lion's share of innovation in
businesses of all kinds, so the wild practices around the fringe of mainstream
medicine have produced many of the most significant clinical changes respectful of the determinants of health. What's ‘quirky,' frankly, is
that mainstream medicine is taking so long to address such common sense about
health, and that mainstream medical education continues to devalue education about nutrition and stress. Downright weird, if one only
let's go of our acceptance of the insanity of the familiar. Still,
good for Briggs to defend the sometimes fecundity at the
fringes.
 Canadian group expands key outcomes resource
The Canadian research network IN-CAM has announced seven
new tools in its remarkable contribution to integrative health research,
the Outcomes Database (see www.outcomesdatabase.org
).
The site was organized to put
in one place "outcome measures of particular importance to Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Integrative Health Care (IHC) effectiveness and
efficacy research" according to an August 2012 notice to IN-CAM members. Outcome
measures included in the database are categorized into domains
reflected in a holistic
framework applicable to the study of health interventions "framed
within a whole person perspective and focused on health and well-being." If you
have an outcome measures to suggest for inclusion into the IN-CAM Outcomes
Database, go to: http://www.outcomesdatabase.org/content/suggest-outcome-measure
Comment: Integrative health and medicine and "CAM" discipline
researchers would serve their fields to be talking up this remarkable resource. It's a great site for bringing research closer to home and fostering in-office projects.
Peering in on "CAM" in pediatrics in Germany
The study is prosaically entitled "Utilization and
costs of conventional and alternative pharmaceuticals in children: results from the German GINIplus and
LISAplus birthvcohort studies." The study focused on estimating the
prevalence and
determinants of conventional, homeopathic and phytotherapeutic drugs and
expenditures. Reported drugs use within the last four weeks were
classified into
the therapeutic categories of ‘conventional medicine', ‘homeopathy',
‘phytotherapy' and ‘others'. The researchers found that 42.3% of the
children
reported drug use with 24.1% of the drugs homeopathic and 11.5%
phytotherapeutic.
Of all children, 14.3% took at least one homeopathic remedy during that
time frame. Drugs prescribed
by physicians were dominated by conventional medicine (76.5%), whereas
in drugs
taken over-the-counter, both homeopathy and conventional medicine
accounted for
37% each. Girls used more homeopathics than boys. Family income showed
only a weak influence on use patterns, but education had a
strong effect in the likelihood of the use of phytotherapy. Cost
analysis yielded
less clear findings. The study looked at utilization of 3,642 children
in two
German birth cohorts. (Thanks to Mitch Bebel-Stargrove, ND, LAc for
bringing the
study to my attention. See his AANP award at the bottom of this
Round-up.)
 Bushnell: a better fit than anticipated?
A medical doctor and NIH-funded research leader in integrative medicine
took umbrage with questions raised in the July 2012 Integrator Round-up about
the fit of M. Catherine Bushnell, PhD for her new role as integrative pain
research leader at NCCAM. The investigator wrote: "You really did not get this
one right!!" Following the double exclamation, the researcher wrote of meeting Bushnell at a conference on acupuncture developed by the Department of Defense.
Bushnell had been invited "to talk about potential neurological mechanisms for
acupuncture modulation of pain." Then: "She is a neuroscientist - not a
practitioner - but if you listen to her presentations or talk to her or dig a
bit more deeply into her published work you will see it is imbued with a strong
interest in the fundamental mechanisms by which a variety of complementary
treatments influence pain." Some examples were offered: "Bushnell has studied
hypnosis and written on studies using hypnosis as a means to modulate
pain. She also studies the differences
between emotion and attention as modulators of pain." The corrective complaint
continued with a note that Bushnell's studies in her lab at McGill "to examine
pain perception in yoga practitioners" were
presented in the Milan 14th World Conference on Pain.
The writer noted Bushnell is approachable: "Yes, she has strong
'mainstream' credentials. But no she is not a 'conventional'
thinker in any way."
Comment: The passionate defense of Bushnell does not address the
fundamental point made in my comment on the Bushnell appointment. This apparently brilliant and independently-minded researcher has not focused her life work where Congress mandated when they created NCCAM: less on mechanism and more on generative useful information on real world outcomes. In Bushnell's domain, this would be integrative pain strategies that will be useful in helping
providers, health systems, insurers and employers to know about the value of
optimal delivery. (See the NCCAM mandate here, and especially sections c and f.) What is needed is more about the success of integrative pain strategies on patient care,
satisfaction, functionality, costs together with research on the interprofessional challenges of
integration and economic challenges of payment. That said, I appreciate the heads up and
will be contacting, and reporting, a dialogue with Bushnell.
I must also confess that I may be asking the impossible of
Briggs and NCCAM. Where does one find the right pain researcher who has clinical experience in
integrative medicine or integrative pain? We are short of skilled, experienced experts with a funded lifetime devoted to
the ins-and-outs of integrative health research. Where will Bushnell
direct things? Hopefully reading the NCCAM
mandate is part of Bushnell's orientation. Meantime, NCCAM sponsored an apparently real-world seminar
August 13-14, 2012 to develop a "forward thinking research agenda" on
chronically overlapping pain conditions.
Professions
 Ward-Cook: an acupuncture collaboration at the D's convention
Kory Ward-Cook, PhD, MT (ASCP), CAE, the CEO of the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine sends notice that leaders in the acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM) profession "joined forces" to host an exhibit booth at the American Presidential
Experience Marketplace as part of the
Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their goal is to "promote the availability of acupuncture services for all
Americans." One focus was on the assembled media. The booth "offer(ed) AOM information and demonstrations to illustrate the efficacy and
necessity of acupuncture treatment to alleviate a variety of ailments." Other participating organizations were the American Association for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) and malpractice insurance carried ACC. A release from the group noted that they viewed this DNC format as "the perfect venue to educate the American public on the benefits of AOM
services, while informing them how to find certified and state licensed practitioners
who provide better care, better treatment, and better outcomes."
Media & Publications
 Alshuler: regular radio time for an exceptional communicator
Naturopathic oncologist and cancer survivor Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO and long-time natural health publisher Karolyn Gazella are producing a nightly, internet-based show on "health promotion in the face of cancer," according to notes in a recently weekly update from the two. A September 2012 show list includes: past Integrator contributor Bill Benda, MD on pet therapy; Vancouver, Canada-based Gaetano Morello, ND on "gentle detoxification;" and University of Florida professor Heather Hausenblas,
PhD, on the "healing benefits of polyphenols and
antioxidants, with a special focus on cocoa and resveratrol." Then Alschuler and Gazella close the week, as they do every week, with a Friday "Research Review Day." The show airs on 8 ET, 5 PT on w4cs.com. They launched the show after publication of a prior collaboration, Five to Thrive: Your Cutting Edge Cancer Prevention Plan.
Comment: Alschuler is one of the most compelling of integrative medicine speakers, Gazella among the most veteran of natural health publishers. Their collaboration, since the influential and widely-respected Definitive Guide to Cancer: An Integrative Approach to Prevention, Treatment and Healing, has been remarkable. Together they also indirectly collaborated to produce the Natural Medicine Journal, the official journal of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians' (AANP), a Gazella-led publication launched when Alschuler was in AANP's executive leadership.
 Documentary on Big Medicine about to air
Dan Redwood, DC, the writer of Health Insights Today and a professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College is among those interviewed for a new documentary produced by Jeff Hays on the medical industrial complex. The documentary is entitled "Doctored: Exposing the Medical Monopoly." The premier will be in New York City September 21, 2012. According to the movie's website, the story will present stories of patients and practitioners "against the backdrop of Big Money medicine." They write: "From failed back surgery nightmares, to cancer, to GMO foods, autism,
the vaccine debate and the tragedy of trading health for dollars, the
whole system has been 'doctored'. Doctored shines a bright light down
previously darkened ally ways of big money medicine." The documentary begins with the door-opening anti-trust legal battle from the 1980s, Wilk vs. the AMA and, according to the makers, "ends with both a hopeful
message of great advances in integration and a dire warning of letting
Big Money own our health." The movie's release is being supported by numerous individual chiropractors. Says Redwood: "This is the first documentary on this topic that has the
capability of going mainstream."
 Top ranked in the Top 10
A perspective on the cities in the U.S. that are best for "alternative medicine" was published as "10 Cities with the Best Alternative Medicine." Those selected are, in order: San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale and Baltimore. Brief paragraphs offer the rationale for each.
Comment: My home town, Seattle, made the list, rightfully, given the most expansive insurance coverage in the country, though the authors do not mention this. They focus instead on Seattle's preferences for yoga and cannabis. Obvious oversights are Portland, Oregon, Twin Cities, Minnesota, and Asheville, North Carolina. The former is the only city in the country with accredited schools of chiropractic medicine, acupuncture and Oriental medicine, naturopathic medicine and massage therapy plus a medical center that has a significant integrative medicine initiative. Big miss, that. On the what!! side, Chicago? I thought Chicago's version of alternative medicine was to order only one helping of prime rib. (Apologies to friends at National University of Health Sciences in nearby Lombard, Illinois, who however will confirm the limits to access to alternatives in a state where medical politics are still dominated by the AMA.) On a factual note, Phoenix seems to have made it principally because of it is described as home to the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. However, that would be Tucson. Still, as fun read. (Thanks to the August newsletter of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center for Integrative Medicine for the link to the article.)
Modern Heathcare Professional stakes out new business model in the integrative publishing arena
Long-time integrative medicine media executive Rob Lutz has a new product: Modern Healthcare Professional. The new resource is presented as an online service "designed for medical professionals interested in
researching and applying evidence-based integrative treatment options in
their practice." The publication has content partnerships with Innovision Communications (for which I write a column in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal) and Holistic Primary Care, among others. Lutz has held senior positions at Innovision Health, Penton Media,
Integrative Medicine Communications and Virgo Publishing.
Comment: The name of the publication moves dangerously close to that of a leading, mainstream publication, Modern Healthcare. That was certainly an intentional placement of integrative medicine in the heart of the mainstream.
 Pizzorno's new book
I received an update on new publications from Joe Pizzorno, ND, current CEO of Salugenesis,
founding president of Bastyr University and influential and widely-read
pioneering author on scientific natural medicine. Via his nearly 30-year collaboration with Michael Murray, ND, Pizzorno rolled out the 3rd edition of the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine in July 2012. The book has sold over 1-million copies and has been published in 6 languages. The original Textbook of Natural Medicine, launched in 1985 (which later birthed the more consumer focused Encyclopedia) will
have its 4th edition published this month. That volume has hit a 60,000
count worldwide. In October 2012, Pizzorno will see published Clinical Pathophysiology. He writes: "I am really excited by my
newest book and hope it becomes a core textbook for all
natural/integrative/functional medicine educational programs. You may recall my
book Total Wellness. This is Total Wellness on steroids for doctors. It fits into
the space between normal physiology and pathology-the place where our medicine
lives."
People
 Westreich: two new key leadership role roles
San Diego-based artist and philanthropist Ruth Westreich has been elected to the boards of both the Virginia-based Samueli Institute and Kenmore, Washington-based Bastyr University. Westreich is among the only members of the Bravewell Collaborative of philanthropists to also see the value in investing her time and energy significantly in integrative health projects that are not directed by medical doctors or nurses - such as Bastyr. She is also a leader in promoting integrative palliative care, particularly through San Diego Hospice and the Institute of Palliative Medicine. Westreich also serves on the Council of Advisers of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care. Bastyr, notably, is opening a San Diego campus on September 14, 2012. Westreich was the subject of an Integrator article entitled What We Want Will Take a Huge Effort:Interview with Integrative Med Philanthropist Ruth Westreich.
 Rodriguez Malave: AANP's Physician of the Year
The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians announced its annual awards at the banquet of its 2012 annual conference and exhibition. Efrain Rodriquez Malave, ND was honored as Physician of the Year for his leadership of the profession in Puerto Rico; Mitchell Bebel-Stargrove, ND, LAc, the visionary author or lead on numerous breakthrough data bases and texts, including Herb, Drug and Nutrient Interactions, with the Vis Award that honors one whose work captures the Vis Medicatrix Naturae at the heart of naturopathic philosophy; Healthpoint community health clinician Cindy Breed, ND and colleague David Harrison with the research award for her work in a community clinic on naturopathic medicine for depression and anxiety; Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine faulty member Mona Morstein, ND, with the President's Award (from Michael Cronin, ND), for her work as moderator of the profession's robust discussion forum, Nat Chat; Pure Encapsulations was given Corporation of the Year; and Integrator publisher-editor John Weeks was honored as a Champion of Naturopathic Medicine.
Comments: As a recent transplant to Puerto Rico for a couple years, I was especially pleased to see Rodriguez Malave win, though I think he would agree that sharing the award with his partner in ND politics in Puerto Rico, Marvey Bernacet, would have been appropriate. Stargrove, Breed and Morstein have each had exceptional careers in and for their field. It was a pleasure, personally, to be honored. After the awards, the dancing began, perhaps the best of (re)wards for participation with that profession. (See below, from a prior convention.)
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