Integrative Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Health and Medicine Round-up #87: January 2015
Written by John Weeks
Integrative Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Health and Medicine Round-up #87: January 2015
Policy
-NCCAM-"Alternative
Medicine" is Dead, Long Live NCCIH-"Integrative Health"
-AIHM
Urges NCCIH to Remain True to Mandated Diversity in the Make-up of its Advisory
Council
Estimates high mortality from regular medicine
-Exhibit
A on Why We Need "Alternatives" - Errors Linked to 440,000 Hospital Deaths Natural Products
-Hatch
and Harkin Anoint Heinrich as the Next Democratic Leader on Supplements
-American
Botanical Council: Update on Adulterants Program Integrative Medicine
-Seattle
Children's Hospital Boasts Inpatient Acupuncture Program -From Google Alerts:Links to Integrative
Medicine in Health Systems, Communities and Internationally from November 2014
-Quick Links to Integrative Health News in Medical Systems and
Communities: December 2014 Primary
Care
-AANP's
Natural Medicine Journal Offers
Multiple Voices on Primary Care
-Center
for Optimal Integration Builds Content on Integrative PCMHs and FQHCs
-Group
Promotes Broad Scope Chiropractic via "First Chiropractic Physician Association
of America"
-Michael
Cohen: "Integrative Medicine Physicians Must Decide if You Embrace, or Disclaim
Primary Care" Education/Academics
-U
Toronto Engages Inter-institutional Relationship with Canadian Memorial
Chiropractic College
-ICIM
Promotes New Integrative Medicine Fellowship
-AOMA:
First AOM Single Purpose School to Achieve Regional Accreditation Gains 10 Year
Re-Affirmation
Chips in $100,000 to F4CP for chiros
Organizations/Professions
-American
Academy of Medical Acupuncturists Passes Resolution on Dry Needling
-Integrative
Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US) Receives $150,000 Samueli Foundation
Commitment
-Foundation
for Chiropractic Progress Nets $100,000 Match Grant from Standard Process -Calls for
Comments:
AAAOM's Competency Model for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Education International
--EUROCAM
Takes on Role of CAM in Microbial Resistance
Global
News Quick Links in Traditional, Alternative and Integrative Health: December
2014
-United
Nations Declares June 21 International Day of Yoga
-Canadian
IN-CAM and Global ISCMR Explore Merger Looking Forward, Looking Back
-Michael
Cohen's Top 5 Legal Issues for Integrative Medicine Practitioners in 2015
-The
Integrator Blog Offers Top 10 for
Integrative Policy and Action for 2014 People
-Gail
Christopher, DN Receives Top Grantmakers in Health Award
-Acupuncture and Public Health Leader Sommers in Book on AIDs
________________________________ Policy
NCCAM-"Alternative
Medicine" is Dead, Long Live NCCIH-"Integrative Health"
The
former NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM)
has officially changed
its name
to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). The
mechanism was the Consolidated and
Further Continuing Appropriations Act (2015) passed on December 9, 2014. The relevant
amendments to Title IV of the Public Health Service Act include: 1) "striking ‘alternative
medicine' in each place it appears and replacing it with ‘integrative health'";
2) "striking all references to ‘alternative and complementary medical
treatment' or ‘complementary and alternative treatment' in each place either
appears and inserting ‘complementary and integrative health'"; and 3) "striking
references to ‘alternative medical treatment' in each place it appears and
inserting ‘integrative health treatment.'" The release underscores that the
name change does not in any way change the two-page mandate
itself
that was meant to capture Congressional intention for the Center's work.
Comment: Wow, the influence of a federal government decree.
These 3 sections are powerful - as if the battle over what do we call it that we do is over. As thought "alternative
medicine" was thereby swept into the dustbin of history. The change of language
had strong leadership and a quality process led by NCCIH director Josephine Briggs, MD and a team on her
National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health (to put in
place the name change). The direction reflects findings regarding actual
consumer use of "alternative medicines." They are often health focused and are
typically "integrative" with conventional care rather than wholesale
"alternatives."
Urges multiprofessional NACCAM
AIHM Urges NCCIH
to Remain True to Mandated Diversity in the Make-up of its Advisory Council
In
its January2015
newsletter,
the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) congratulated the NIH on
the name change from National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Then AIHM challenged
the agency on a key point, expressing "concern with the make-up of the National Advisory Council to the
Center."
AIHM cited Congress mandate to the NIH in
1998 that "at least half of the members of the advisory council ...shall include
practitioners licensed in one or more of the major systems with which the
Center is concerned." The newsletter piece stated that out of 18 members, only
two are from professions "that have historically been considered complementary
and alternative medicine - an MD-chiropractic doctor and a single naturopathic
physician. That's 11% not 50% plus." AIHM concluded: "We earnestly hope
that the new NCCIH will make sure to appropriately and in a robust way include
all of the integrative health and medicine professions in the agency's
leadership as we engage the research to support implementing integrative health
practices in our communities."
Comment: One of the best
ways NCCIH director Josie Briggs, MD can make good on a truly "integrative"
future for the newly-named Center is with corrective action in the make-up of
the Council. Briggs must ensure her advisors do not merely hail from
conventional academic health centers but also the disciplines linked to the
360,000 licensed practitioners from whom U.S. citizens receive most of their
alternative-complementary-integrative care.
Otherwise, NCCIH threatens its own "integrative" claim. Good for the
still MD-centric AIHM, which has a mission to create a big tent, to stake out a
strong position in-support of the non MD professions. (Alignment of interest note: I am an AIHM board member and was part
of the team that developed the statement.)
Dismaking increase since this seminal publication
Exhibit A on Why
We Need "Alternatives" - Errors Linked to 440,000 Hospital Deaths
Comment: This past month, even as NCCAM was excising
the consumer movement for "alternative medicine" from its portfolio, a
colleague a colleague sent notice of a reputable study
from the end of 2013
that has put the estimate of deaths from hospital errors at 440,000 annually.
If these numbers from the hospital safety-focused Leapfrog
Group
are solid, this makes hospital errors the 3rd leading cause of death
in the United States. This is up from the 98,000 estimate from the purportedly
game-changing Institute of Medicine's To Err is Human
(1999).
This is devastating. Somehow "complementary" and "integrative" don't seem to
hold the right urgency for what is needed. We clearly need, from top-to-bottom,
systemic, out of the box, major alternatives
to what we are doing in the organization of medicine to adequately effect the
transformation for which the integrative health and medicine fields stand. Just as "alternative" can box the movement,
so can "alternative" focus one to radically think further outside the box that
either "integrative" or "complementary" suggest.
Natural Products
US Senator Martin Heinrich
Hatch and Harkin
Anoint Heinrich as the Next Democratic Leader on Supplements
The American Herbal Products Association has reported that in December U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch
(R-UT) and then still Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) recognized Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
as the next Democratic leader in the U.S. Senate for safeguarding access to
dietary supplements." Heinrich was elected to the Senate in
November 2012. He had previously served in the House of Representatives from
2009 to 2012 and on the Albuquerque City Council from 2003 to 2007, including
one term as city council president in 2006. AHPTA credits its own work and that
of AHPA's New Mexico members for making Heinrich "keenly aware of the important
role that the supplement community plays in his home state." AHPA invited
Senator Heinrich to attend Expo West and introduced
him to the herbal and natural products industry. Heinrich was the first to join
the Congressional Dietary Supplements Caucus since Senators Hatch and Harkin
initially founded the caucus.
Comment: Tough to swap a powerful veteran with a
personal natural health story (Harkin) for a greenhorn (Heinrich). Let's see
how he matures in this role. Side-note: Drugstore News
here reports
on the 7th and final briefing to the Dietary Supplement Caucus held
on December14, 2014.
ABC's Blumenthal: steadily growing public health effort
American Botanical
Council: Update on Adulterants Program
In
an end of year
statement to members,
the American Botanical Council (ABC) highlighted recent developments with its Botanical
Adulterants Program.
ABC notes that product chemist John Cardellina and Canadian herb and regulatory
expert Michael Smith,
BPharm, ND,
are each working with the program. This means the program "will be picking up
even more steam in 2015." One initiative is the development of Laboratory
Guidance Documents
to "provide summaries and evaluations of existing analytical methods for
determining authenticity and detection of adulteration of herbs already covered
in the Botanical Adulterants Program." They note that ABC's first such
document, on skullcap, is about to be
released. ABC's partners in the program are the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia
and the University
of Mississippi's National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR).
Comment: Great to see Samueli Institute senior fellow Michael
Smith, BPharm, ND on this team. This program is to the herb industry what the
Institute of Health Improvement's (IHI) 100,000 lives
campaign
was to US medical delivery systems. Each focuses on shadow topics that some in
each industry would consider just the kind of dirty laundry to keep to
themselves and not advertise. The IHI campaign responded to reports of medical
errors and this of course to intentional and unintentional "errors" in the
make-up of herbal products that can influence both safety and effectiveness.
Good for the IHI on the former. Good for ABC executive director Mark Blumenthal
and ABC's partners for the latter.
Integrative
Medicine
Major pediatric hospital adds inpatient acupuncture
Seattle Children's
Hospital Boasts Inpatient Acupuncture Program
The Northwest's leading pediatric hospital,
Seattle Children's Hospital, is boasting the
distinction of having one of the few inpatient
acupuncture programs in such a specialized hospital anywhere in the country.
The article on the hospital‘s website describes its uptake of acupuncture via,
first, a stuttering, volunteer-driven outpatient program with very limited
hours, then an internal pilot project. Positive experience in the pilot led to the
present status: "The pilot
was so successful that the Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine Department turned
it into a fully funded program that offers acupuncture to inpatients eight
hours a day, five days a week." The supervising physician is a Children's anesthesiologist
since 1981 who more recently gained certification as a medical acupuncturist, Ane Lynn, MD. Two licensed
acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners work in the department.
Research on acupuncture as a non-pharmacologic approach to pain management is
planned.
Comment:
The Seattle Children's
Hospital, with its blood links to the University of
Washington Medical School, is perched between that complex and some of Seattle's
most valuable real estate, the Laurelhurst neighborhood along Lake Washington. The
hospital has forever been a favored charity of Seattle's wealthy. Which is all
a way of saying that, as tipping points go, the Children's move is more of a
super-thrust than a passive falling over.
From Google Alerts: Links to Integrative Medicine
in Health Systems, Communities and Internationally from November 2014
(Note: for timing reasons, this was not posted with the Integrative
Practitioner Online version of the Integrator Round-up in December 2014.) This typically monthly Integrator feature is a quick
capture of highlights from Google Alerts and elsewhere. Recently the field's
cup seems to be running over with a tremendous level of news and developments.
This is in part due to my use of a broader inclusion net for what I am
selecting. At the same time, the activity level suggests that those who believe
the movement is headed toward a "tipping point" - see note above -- may
have something. Here are 15 selections related to hospitals and medical
organizations and integrative medicine, 10 from alternative and integrative
medicine in community non-system practices and media, and 21 developments from
around the world for November 2014.
Quick Links to Integrative Health News in Medical
Systems and Communities: December 2014
This typically monthly
Integrator feature
is a quick capture of highlights from the multitude of stories that flow in
daily from various sources relative to "integrative medicine,"
"complementary and alternative medicine" and "alternative
medicine." Once a month I cull through and make some selections. Recently
the field's cup seems to be running over. This is in part due to my use of a
broader inclusion net for what I am selections. Here are 15 selections related
to hospitals and medical organizations and integrative medicine, 13 from
alternative and integrative medicine in community non-system practices and media
for December 2014. (Note that international news is now separately posted.)
Primary Care
Focus on primary care models
AANP's Natural Medicine Journal Offers Multiple
Voices on Primary Care
The
Natural Medicine Journal, the
official journal of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, offered
a special feature, Perspectives on
the Present Primary Care Crisis, with four voices looking at naturopathic
and integrative practitioner roles. Cindy Breed, ND, a pioneering practitioner
at the 12-clinic Health Point organization, briefly shares the
multi-practitioner model there. A co-chair of the nurses Primary Care Expect Panel notes that
"integrative physicians and nurse practitioners have a similar mindset in that
we both feel the body and mind are connected. Nurse practitioners and
integrative physicians could create an effective collaboration because of this
shared view."
Cited in NMJ
In
addition, a founder of Primary Care
Progress
speaks to an "all hands on deck" need: "Chiropractors, naturopathic physicians,
acupuncturists, dieticians, physical therapists, and other care team members
have important roles on that primary care team." The NMJ article also features and links to the primary care
project white paper
led by UCLA Center for Health Policy's Michael Goldstein, PhD and this writer
entitled Meeting the Nation's Primary Care Needs: Current Prospective Roles
of Doctors of Chiropractic and Naturopathic Medicine, Practitioners of
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and Direct-Entry Midwives.
Comment: The NMJ article focuses attention on an
important area for the publication's core constituency: naturopathic doctors.
Though directly sited as "primary care" in roughly half of the states in which
they are licensed, NDs are, like most professions, still working out what
role(s) they might wish to play. It was notable that NMJ did not include a segment from one form of participation: those
naturopathic physicians who are running recognized patient-centered medical
homes (see Round-up segment immediately
below).
Hosts site on integrative PCMHs
Center for Optimal
Integration Builds Content on Integrative PCMHs and FQHCs
The
Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim (PIHTA) at the Center for Optimal Integration: Creating Health has begun publishing existing clinical models using
integrative practitioners in primary care medical homes (PCMHs) and federally
qualified health centers (FQHCs). The present list includes roughly
a dozen exemplars, including Healthpoint, noted above, the MD-led Casey Health
Institute, and two ND-led PCMHs. One is in Oregon, led by Martin
Milner, ND and the other in Vermont, led by Lorilee
Schoenbeck, ND. The PIHTA project actively seeks referrals of other clinics
that below on this. The stated goal of the page is to "continuously build-out
the most useful base of ... examples from the field to support engagement and
implementation decisions." PIHTA is
managed by Jennifer
Olejownik, PhD, MS
and submissions can be made via
.
Comment: This site, with
which I am involved, will be just as good as we can make it. Please send in
other known integrative PCMH's or FQHCs.
Group Promotes Broad
Scope Chiropractic via "First Chiropractic Physician Association of America"
A
Florida-based organization called the First Chiropractic Physicians Association of America that claims 4000 members and 39 state
organizations is "fighting
to integrate chiropractic physicians into the healthcare
system as specialists and primary care providers with full prescriptive rights." The effort is led by Roderic
A. Lacy, MD DC who describes his clinical
work as "Practicing General Med/Chiropractic." The organization's February 2015
C.E. event, Thunder in Tampa Bay, is promoted as a time to "focus on expanding your
education and your rights as a doctor so you can work side by side with MD's
and DO's." FCPAA has a relationship
with the chiropractic program at the University of Bridgeport for its
continuing education.
Comment: Clearly, there is a durable subset of chiropractors who are
promoting broader scope, with some pharmacy rights. Whether the FCPAA will
meaningfully that these reins is hard to say. A couple of quick queries netted
mixed reports on this group's quality and likely effectiveness. The goofy name
of the February CE offering is perhaps not the tone to strike if medical
quality or "working side by side with MDs and DOs" is a targeted outcome. The
asserted numbers of members is significant - more than the International
Chiropractic Association and something like a third of that of the American
Chiropractic Association. Yet on looking on finds that the threshold for
membership requires the same commitment to the organization as signing up for a
Costco newsletter: according to the letter, members need not pay dues.
Meantime, Lacy appears
to be quite a character. He has an offshore connection through which he offers
interested chiropractors FCPA's
Dominican Republic Hospital Adventure. The fact that it is copyrighted as "Rod's Dominican Republic
Hospital Adventure" suggests that more definition of where Lacy and the FCPAA each
begin and end merit clarification. His MD as well as that of one of his close
colleagues, is from a D.R. institution. If those chiropractors who are taking
on a less expansive majority wish to be effective in broadening practice
rights, they likely need an organization. The FCPAA does not look like the
right vehicle.
Cohen: urges clarity on PCP role
Michael Cohen: "Integrative
Medicine Physicians Must Decide if You Embrace, or Disclaim Primary Care"
In
a top 5 list of
legal trends for 2015
published by FON Consulting, attorney and former Harvard Medical School
professor Michael Cohen notes this as #2:
"Integrative medicine physicians should decide whether to embrace, or disclaim,
primary care." Cohen explains: "A key
strategy our law firm has been using with physicians who incorporate
complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine therapeutic approaches is
to style the physician as a consultant or specialist, who disclaims primary
care." He gives an example: "The physician may not treat the patient's
diabetes, but may review with the patient lifestyle choices that lead to or
exacerbate diabetes."
Cohen
then concludes: "Some integrative medicine physicians prefer the primary care
doctor role. However, this means that they take responsibility for providing
standard of care for primary care. If the physician is, for example, only
providing consultative homeopathic care so as to improve overall health rather
than treat symptoms and effectuate cure, then the physician may wish to
disclaim primary care."
Comment: This is indeed a
tough question. Ultimately, primary care would be the most philosophically
integrative of any care, reaching deeply into the social determinants,
self-care and patient empowerment and building from there through a therapeutic
order. At the same time, however, the practitioner must practice self-care in
order to impart it well. Good questions are raised about whether self-care is
not utterly discordant with the current demands of primary care practice.
There's the rub, and an awfully chafing rub it is. Note the segment on the rest of Cohen's Top
5, below.
Education/Academics
Mior: led CMCC-Toronto effort
U Toronto Engages Inter-institutional
Relationship with Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
The Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College
(CMCC) led by David Wickes, DC has firmed up an
inter-institutional relationships with three
divisions at the University of Toronto: including medicine, pharmacy
and kinesiology. Notes the release: "The memorandum, a first between the two
institutions, will provide opportunities to foster cooperative relationships in
areas of research and education. This cooperation could be realized in such
areas as joint applications for funding; joint educational courses; graduate
and undergraduate student mobility; exchange of faculty and participation in,
and co-hosting of lectures, meetings, seminars, symposia and conferences." The individual credited for building the relationship is
Silvano Mior, DC,
FCCS(C), PhD, a CMCC research scientist and senior
advisor to Wickes. Among those who represented U Toronto for the ceremonial
signing is whole systems researcher Heather Boon, PharmD, dean of the Leslie
Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.
Wickes: at the helm at CMCC
Comment: When the National Education
Dialogue to Advance Integrated Health Care
filed its Progress Report in 2006, the number one recommendation was listed as
follows: "Facilitate
development of inter-institutional relationships and geographically based
groupings of conventional and CAM institutions and disciplines in diverse
regions. Promote student and faculty exchanges, create new clinical
opportunities, facilitate integrated post-graduate and residency programs, and
provide opportunities for students to audit classes and share library
privileges." Looks like we have an exemplar! Note that rumor has it that a
similar relationship for U Toronto is being engaged with Canadian College of
Naturopathic Medicine. More as I learn more.
Begins fellowship
ICIM Promotes New
Integrative Medicine Fellowship
The
American College of Integrative Medicine (ICIM)
has announced a new, 13 module Integrative
Medicine Fellowship.
The two sessions that make up Module #1 will be offered in January and March of
2014. The ICIM claims "a unique approach to the world of medicine, healing, and
wellness" in which "the fundamental focus is on the individual
client/patient." In the training program, "each level is designed to
increase your opportunity to engage a client/patient in their own healing and
to Enhance Your Practice Success by gaining more effective Tools." The
first session features topics such as photon therapy, parasites, detoxification,
"Water Chemistry Modification for Health Practitioner," and the role of
intention. A January 10, 2014 webinar led by W. Lee Cowden, MD,
MD (H)and ICIM CEO Bill Gonseaux introduced
the new offerings.
Comment: It is notable
that the ICIM does not anywhere mention whether those who complete the fellowship
will be prepared for and accepted to take the test for the new Board
Certification in Integrative Medicine from the American Board of Integrative
Medicine (ABOIM)e. One might anticipate new fellowship programs opening, as
options to that offered through the Arizona Center for
Integrative Medicine,
to meet the new ABOIM standard.
Morris: guiding AOMA in regional waters
AOMA: First AOM
Single Purpose School to Achieve Regional Accreditation Gains 10 Year Re-Affirmation
The AOMA
Graduate School of Integrative Medicine led by William
Morris, PhD, LAc, president, has announced
a 10 year re-affirmation of regional accreditation from the Southern acupuncture
and Oriental medicine college to gain
regional accreditation when it did so in 2009. The proprietary AOMA
offers both a master's degree and a doctoral degree in acupuncture and Oriental
medicine. According to the release, as part of the reaffirmation process, AOMA "developed
a carefully designed and focused clinical experience that is expected to "more
closely align with real-world experience, providing students with a staged
clinical experience at the very busy AOMA clinics."
Comment: This is a
shout-out to successful trail-blazing into a new level of public trust -
regional accreditation - on which Morris and his AOMA team have clearly, with
this 10 year reaffirmation, come through. Congratulations!
Organizations/Professions
Position onnry needling
American Academy
of Medical Acupuncturists Passes Resolution on Dry Needling
On
December 9, 2014, the board of directors of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture
(AAMA)
passed a position on the controversial practice of "dry needling" that
concludes: "The AAMA recognizes dry needling as an invasive procedure using
acupuncture needles that has associated medical risks. Therefore, the AAMA
maintains that this procedure should be performed only by practitioners with
extensive training and familiarity with routine use of needles in their
practice and who are duly licensed to perform these procedures, such as
licensed medical physicians or licensed acupuncturist." The lead authors are Marshall
H. Sager, DO, FAAMA and Rey Ximenes, MD, FAAMA.
Comment: This position
statement is something of a circling of the guild wagons of those trained in
some level of acupuncture against the encroaching physical therapists and
chiropractors who are going after dry-needlining.
Henry and Susan Samueli: transformative grant to IM4US
Integrative
Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US) Receives $150,000 Samueli Foundation Commitment
Good news for Integrative Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US).
The Integrator has learned that the Samueli
Foundation has made a 2015-2016 commitment of $150,000 to the organization. As
a part of the grant, IM4US.will bring its growing and influential annual
conference to the Samueli home base of Orange County in 2016. The funds will
allow IM4US to also support the 2015 Boston conference and purchase professional
and administrative services. A Samueli source states: "For IM to be
successful it must be mainstreamed and available to the underserved. If we can
build this organization's capacity, we can make it happen."
Comment:
What a terrifically-acronymed organization. The 5 digits evoke the activism of
the organization and its purpose while not so subtly playing patriotic chords. The
fit is good, if surprising. One priority of the philanthropy of Henry and Susan
Samueli is investment in its local community, Orange County, one of the
nation's wealthiest jurisdictions. Even as the IM4US name evokes strange
bedfellows, we will all need to become accustomed to "underserved" and "Orange County"
co-habiting our brain space. This is a huge, transformative investment for IM4US.
Big grant from Standard Process
Foundation for
Chiropractic Progress Nets $100,000 Match Grant from Standard Process
Supplement
maker Standard Process has engaged a new
strategy to drive donations to the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP).
According to this F4CP newsletter, the firm has
committed to match each $25 per month donation made by its customers, up until
$100,000. The strategy was engaged "in hopes of encouraging more of its
customers to support the F4CP's positive press campaign." Since 2006, SP has
contributed at a minimum of $100,000 per year.
Comment: F4CP continues
to be the model for any profession to funnel support for its cause. Link clarity
of purpose to commitments of top industry players then reach out through state
and national organizations, colleges and individual members. It's been quite an
effective strategy. The F4CP focus,
like Standard Process' effort, is on securing monthly, sustaining donors. It's an impressive list.
Competencies propject
Calls for Comments: AAAOM's
Competency Model for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Education
The
American Association for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) has
announced a public comment process on its proposed AOM competency model that AAAOM
asserts "will be used to provide guidance on how AOM education is structured
and delivered." The development followed findings from the AAAOM's profession-wide
survey published May 2012. The AAAOM then hired a third-party expert "to help
evaluate existing AOM competencies and academic structures and build
a draft, unified competency model for the field." The paper is the resulting "unified
competency model draft to the community for discussion." The AAAOM seeks
input from the interested community via an online submission with comments due
January16, 2015. The document separately addressed competencies for a Master's
level training and for the emerging First Professional Doctorate. A focus is on
competencies related to biomedicine, Western sciences and integrative
practices. The principal authors of the 65-page document- including 20 pages of
appendices - are former AAAOM president Michael Jabbour, MS, LAc and Valerie
Ruhe, PhD.
Comment: The AAAOM's current
struggling and marginalized role in the field, and particularly the challenges
Jabbour has had in playing well with others (see AAAOM - Making
Promises it Can't Keep ), raise questions. Will an AAAOM document led by Jabbour,
who is not himself principally an educator, be unifying or accepted as a guide?
The document definitely has its merits. For instance, the appendices not only a
chart showing the matrix of existing and new competencies but also some sets of
comparator competencies from other fields.
International
Takes on key hot topic
EUROCAM Takes on
Role of CAM in Microbial Resistance
In
late November to mark the European Union's "Antibiotics Awareness Day" for
2014, EUROCAM published a draft position
paper
entitled: "The role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in reducing
the problem of antimicrobial resistance".
This policy document calls out "the potential of CAM in reducing the
problem of AMR [antimicrobial resistance] to be given serious consideration and
for further research to be carried out in this area to determine in which
conditions, both in human and veterinary healthcare, specific CAM modalities
are particularly effective."
The
33-page paper by this umbrella group introduces policy makers to the historic dialogue
about the role of the host in development of infections of all kinds. The first
segment then speaks to how integrative strategies can build resilience in
people so they will have less need for antibiotics of any kind. It then touches
such topics as the positive interactions between herbs and antibiotic, use of
homeopathic medicines. They cite evidence that the incidence of AMR is lower in
an anthroposophical hospital using more integrative therapies than it is in
regular settings. The authors also note the importance of integrative practices
in veterinary medicine to diminish over use of antibiotics in farming.
Comment: This is a
terrific example of the kind of white papers the integrative health and
medicine communities need on a whole array of topics. The EUROCAM strategy of
linking the publication to a mainstream event -- in this case the annual
Antibiotics Awareness Day -- is also noteworthy. The authors are correct that
the severity of the problem means than no stone should be unturned in exploring
options. They clearly urge even those with a prejudice against natural remedies
to explore into the worlds of herbs and homeopathic medicines. To the extent we
fail to make what is after all a relatively limited research investment,
policy-makers risk a categorization parallel to the Cold War's term of rebuke: "Better dead than
red."
Too many decision-makers would seem to thinks that they are better dead than CAM. Here's hoping the
paper opens eyes, and doors.
Global News Quick
Links in Traditional, Alternative and Integrative Health: December 2014
This new monthly Integrator feature is now developed in partnership with the soon-to-emerge web
presence of the peer-reviewed and indexed Global
Advances in Health and Medicine.
(More next issue.) It represents a quick capture of highlights from a multitude
of sources relative to dynamic developments globally in alternative and
integrative heath. Forces behind the robust activity as the World Health
Organization's recent Traditional Medicine Strategy, economics, expanding
globalization and the uptake of integrative medicine and health models. Here
are 21 selections from India, Turkey, Qatar, Pakistan, Malaysia, England,
Australia, Russia and elsewhere for December 2014.
Modi: behind yoga day
United Nations
Declares June 21 International Day of Yoga
The
proposal to the
United Nations' General Assembly reportedly came from Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in September 2014. He urged the United Nations' to
promote yoga's value in helping people "discover the sense of oneness with
yourself, the world and the nature." Three months later, on December 11, 2014,
with 175 co-sponsors, the 193 member United Nations General Assembly declared
June 21, the solstice, as International Day of Yoga. The U.N. secretary general
Ban Ki-moon said the celebration would bring attention to yoga's holistic
benefits: "Yoga can contribute to resilience against non-communicable diseases.
Yoga can bring communities together in an inclusive manner that generates
respect." He added: "Yoga is a sport that can contribute to development and
peace. Yoga can even help people in emergency situations to find relief from
stress." This is the first time "any such initiative has been proposed and
implemented" in less than 90 days. The U.N has declared 118 other such
commemorative days.
Comment: The quotes
wonderfully capture the many faces of yoga - from sport to stress relief to
medical intervention to a multi-leveled "sense of oneness." The phenomenally
rapid uptake of yoga internationally over the past two decades is evidence that
the practices together constitute a chord that hits on all those notes. Fascinating to see this international
consensus emerging for advancing health through yoga. Notably, the number of
co-sponsors
is also a record for any resolution of this sort. (This segment originally
written for Global Advances in Health and
Medicine.)
Consering merger with ICCMR
Canadian IN-CAM
and Global ISCMR Explore Merger
Big news in the
research arena: two major research organizations are
exploring a merger. One is the Canadian IN-CAM (Interdisciplinary Network for
CAM Research) and the other the International Society for Complementary
Medicine Research (ISCMR). The
organizations have had over-lapping founders and leaders. For instance, Heather
Boon, PharmD, co-founded the former and chairs the latter while the recently
retired Dr. Rogers' Prize-winner Marja Verhoef, PhD, co-founded each. Each is
multidisciplinary, with a focus on outcomes and whole systems.
Comment: There is a good
fit between these two, especially with the characteristically less
pharmaceutical and reductive foci and more proactive interest in on real world
outcomes. A merger can certainly offer economies for each via limiting continuous
and separate struggles for operating resources via membership and philanthropic
partnerships.
Looking Forward,
Looking Back
fON's Sabin: publishes Cohen's Top 5
Michael Cohen's
Top 5 Legal Issues for Integrative Medicine Practitioners in 2015
Attorney
and regulatory expert in the business of integrative medicine Michael Cohen has
produced a thoughtful and informative Top 5 for 2015. These were published here via
Glenn Sabin's FON Consulting (formerly FON Therapeutics). Cohen's trends
are: 1) No defined legal category (for integrative medicine); 2. Integrative
medicine physicians should decide whether to embrace, or disclaim, primary
care; 3. Kickback and fee-splitting issues represent a danger zone for
integrative practice; 4. The MSO model is here to stay;
and 5. Telemedicine, mobile health, and wearable health are emerging trends
that will merge with integrative healthcare. Cohen is a former Harvard Medical School
professor who authored multiple, influential books in the early days of the
integrative care movement. .
Comment: Cohen's comments
supporting each of these points merit reading for any clinician, and most
especially integrative medical doctors. For instance: "Integrative medicine
remains outside the bounds of a professional category defined by law-unlike,
say, ‘physical therapy' or ‘psychology.' This means that the rest of healthcare
law has to be borrowed, modified, or adapted to fit integrative health." Fascinating perspectives from a true veteran.
Another year, another Top 10
The Integrator Blog Offers Top 10 for
Integrative Policy and Action for 2014
The
Huffington Post
has published
9th annual "Coming of the Light: Top 10 in Policy and Action in
Integrative Health and Medicine in 2014" from the Integrator Blog. Among initiatives and actions high-lighted are the
new Joint Commission pain standards, transition in the U.S. Senate, the
Cleveland Clinic's functional medicine and Chinese herbs programs, Veteran's
integrative initiatives, massage collaborations, emergence of AIHM, the Society
for Integrative Oncology, a new cost-related web initiative, a coalition
promoting exploration of the biofield. This review has drawn nearly 850 "likes"
since its posting near the Solstice.
People
Naparath Christopher: key award
Gail Christopher,
DN Receives Top Grantmakers in Health Award
Gail
Christopher, DN
is being honored this year with
the Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in
Health Philanthropy. This is the highest award given via the philanthropic
organization Grantmakers in Heath.
Christopher, who
is a licensed naprapath and past member of the Samueli Institute board of
directors, is presently a senior advisor at the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation. She is celebrated as "a pioneer and visionary" who has "spearheaded
programs that take a broad view of health and well-being and the multiple
factors that shape them." The release notes that Christopher earned a doctor of
naprapathy from the Chicago National
College of Naprapathy and "completed advanced study in holistic health and clinical
nutrition at the Union for Experimenting Colleges and Universities at Union
Graduate School of Cincinnati, Ohio."
Comment: As a Samueli Institute board member,
Christopher was instrumental in moving that organization toward community
engagement and health creation. Via a Samueli Institute, I had a chance to meet
Christopher and swap stories about what it is to be attached to a small field
that may be considered fringe. To her credit, Christopher proudly and opening embraces
her connection with naprapathy. (To
the uninitiated, this field is physical medicine focused and was founded
roughly 100 years ago at about the same time as osteopathy, naturopathy and
chiropractic were founded. Practitioners can be licensed in Illinois.)
Christopher, who came by her interest in natural medicine via an eye condition,
is a powerhouse. as she showed Attendees at her October 2014 keynote at the
first conference of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine affirmed
that with a standing ovation.
Sommers: book on acupuncture for AIDS
Acupuncture
and Public Health Leader Sommers in Book on AIDs