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The Integrator Top 10 for Policy and Action in Integrative Health and Medicine in 2013 |
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Written by John Weeks
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The Integrator Top 10 for Policy and Action in Integrative Health and Medicine for 2013
 The coming of the light!
Since 2006, on or about each winter Solstice I have saluted the coming of the light with publication of he Integrator Top 10 for the previous year. Since 2011, these
have also been published via the Huffington Post. Links to past blogs are here
and at the bottom of this posting. Together these chronicle eight years
of policy and action in this popular movement. The 2013 iteration begins
with the battle over civilizing US health care through "non
discrimination" and ends with a salute to the end of year emergence of
something operating under the working title of "The Academy." Between
these, research surprises, some sterling appointments by individuals,
advances of select professions, and some ways that individuals
associated with this movements are shaping the values, practices and
disciplines associated with integrative health and medicine.
This column was first published here at the Huffington Post.
Battles in implementation of "non-discrimination in health care" (Section 2706)
You'd think in a civilized age "non-discrimination" among licensed
professions in health care would be a no-brainer. Yet the year 2013
witnessed continuous battles over Section 2706 of the Affordable Care
Act, which bluntly asserts "Non-Discrimination in Health Care." Congress
rebuked a federal agency, state agencies applied multiple
interpretations, a consortium of seven M.D. specialties filed a bill,
H.B. 2817, to chuck it altogether, and three major coalitions of
non-M.D. professions let the M.D.s know the back of the bus wasn't okay
anymore. This is a rights issue that will likely require a "big honking
lawsuit."
 Can the integrative health field live up to its billing?
Escape Fire! shines light on integrative medicine to resolve the crisis in the medical industry
The documentary Escape Fire! The Fight to Rescue American Health Care may not have lived up to its billing as a guide to find our way out of the woods, as I argue here. Nor did it have the impact as a change agent that its producers wished, as Glenn Sabin shares here.
Yet the film not only captured the horrible symptoms of our medical
industry's chronically bloating condition but also positioned
integrative practices and whole person philosophy as the solution.
Leaders of the field love to criticize health reform for not going deep
enough. But are we ready to take responsibility for leading the medical
industry out of this crisis?
 VHA: bringing respect to chiropractors
Chiropractors hit trifecta with new Medicare, veterans and residency advances
In the period of one month last summer, the chiropractic profession announced three significant, long-sought advances. Medicare opened a dialogue on
treating doctors of chiropractic as a profession, rather than as an
"it" of a modality: The agency may begin paying for evaluation and
management codes. The U.S. Senate passed an amendment to an omnibus bill to expand the field's services to Veterans. Finally, the Veterans administration announced that it is opening a program of six chiropractic residencies. Each step marks a significant shift from outside, in.
 EDTA chelation shows positive
Told you so department: Chelation backed by two NIH-funded studies
The therapeutic intervention that powered economic development in
many integrative medicine practices from the 1980s forward is also that
which the conventional community has most loved to denigrate: EDTA
chelation therapy. The NIH has been derided for spending $30 million on a study. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shocked many when it found limited yet positive outcomes. Then a sub-study was published in November
that led the director of the NIH National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine Josephine Briggs, M.D. to judge that the outcomes "strongly suggest" value for diabetics. Briggs rightly shares that this is a reminder of the "need to keep an open mind in research."
 Gaudet: national spokes for fundamental reform
Integrative health and medicine leaders Gaudet and Brimhall in mainstream leadership roles
An ultimate gauge of influence of an externalized movement is the
elevation of its leaders into key roles in mainstream organizations. One
such example was the election of chiropractic educator Joe Brimhall, DC to
chair the powerful accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on
Colleges and Universities. No academic leader from the licensed
integrative health disciplines has held such a position. The more
pronounced is the rapidly growing emergence of Tracy Gaudet, M.D.
as spokesperson on health care transformation via her position as
director of the Veteran's office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural
Transformation. Her team has successfully placed "whole health" as the
focus in the President's Planning Budget for Veterans Health
Administration.
 Goldblatt: promoting key role for self-care, health and wellbeing
Shifting paradigms: Consortium of "CAM" academics puts stamp of health and well-being into key IOM health professions dialogue
Academics from virtually all health professions spent two days at the
Institute of Medicine last May imagining a team-based, post-silo era of
"transdisciplinary professionalism for health." Thanks to representation on the planning committee by Elizabeth A. Goldblatt, Ph.D., MPA/HA of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care, with which I am involved, this workshop on a more desirable future included a welcome, overt focus entitled "health and well-being in transdisciplinary professionalism." Acupuncture and Oriental medicine academic Goldblatt
and integrative nursing leader Mary Jo Kreitzer, RN, Ph.D., FAAN led
the session. These leaders elevated self-care and health creation to a
core focus in this imagining of our future.
Naturopathic doctors lauded by U.S. Senate and recognized as pioneers in integrative medicine
For a first direct Congressional recognition of a profession, the U.S. Senate resolution SR 221 backing Naturopathic Medicine Week
was as laudatory an arrival for naturopathic physicians as one could
imagine. They were positioned as experts in chronic disease and as a
part of the solution to the primary care crisis. This historic federal
boost came on the heels of perhaps as satisfying a recognition, by Tracy
Gaudet, M.D. (see above). In a speech in Washington, D.C.,
the academic integrative medicine pioneer and Veteran's leader honored
the naturopathic physicians as pioneers in developing an integrative
medicine education and practice model. The Veterans Health
Administration leader called them "a huge part of the solution" for the
nation's healthcare woes.
 Riley: prominence for Global Advances and breakthrough on case reports
David Riley, M.D., case reports and Global Advances in Health and Medicine
This was a big year for David Riley, M.D., the co-founder, with Michele Mittelman, RN, MPH, of the fiesty Global Advances in Health and Medicine. The young but already peer-reviewed and indexed journal is emerging as a leading cross-over publication. Global Advances
is infused with integrative health and medicine philosophy and practice
and partner with key organizations on significant initiatives while
also reaching a less sectarian audience. Theme issues included group
visits, health coaching and treatment of autism. Meantime Riley, who has
long recognized the evidence issues in whole person, multi-agent,
individualized treatment, stimulated a broad-based, multi-journal
endorsement of the CARE consensus-based case report guidelines as a key evidence platform for all of medicine, including integrative practices.
 Harkin: godfather announces retirement
Integrative health and medicine champion U.S. Senator Harkin announces plans to retire
Champions in high places have lifted the modalities, systems and
disciplines associated with integrative health and medicine through the
molasses and knives of resistance from the medical industry. None has
been more influential than U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), the chair of
the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing health care. That
Harkin will not seek re-election in 2014
was big news for the field. Worry, however, is moderated by the
knowledge that integrative medicine's other top supporter, Barbara
Mikulski (D-MD) has taken over as chair of the entire Appropriations
Committee. Time to get those last asks into Iowa's senior senator.
 Guarneri: teams with Taylors, ABIHM and others in inclusive mission
The Academy initiative of ABIHM and Mimi Guarneri, M.D.: new collaborative platform?
An end of year development may have the most significant impact on
the field going forward. The American Board of Integrative Holistic
Medicine, in partnership with integrative cardiologist Mimi Guarneri,
M.D. and her connection to the Calgary-based Taylor Family Foundation,
are imagining the development of a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder
global platform for education, certification and policy advancement for
integrative health and medicine. Such a dream is not new. What sets
this apart is the relationship with what is rumored to be potentially an
8-digit level of philanthropic investment. This "Academy," is it is
being called, could be an exciting engine for unity and growth.
What deserved to be on this list and wasn't? Please comment with your
ideas and that, or what was included. Here's to a great 2014!
Top 10 from 2006
Top 10 from 2007
Top 10 from 2008
Top 10 from 2009
Top 10 People 2009
Top 10 from 2010
Top 10 People 2010
Top 10 for Policy and Action 2011
Top 10 for Policy and Action 2012
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