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Integrative Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Health and Medicine Round-up #95: September 2015 |
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Written by John Weeks
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Integrative Medicine, Complementary and Alternative Health and Medicine Round-up #95: September 2015
Policy
-Report
Published through IHPC of Policy Day - with Commitments of Participants - to
Honor US Senator Harkin
-Dismal Outcomes, New
Directions: American Botanical Council Feature on NCCIH's Botanical
Strategy - Past, Present and Future
.jpg) US Senator Tom Harkin: policy report as tribute
-Glenn
Sabin: Names, Nomenclature, Trends -
Where We Are Headed?
Economics
-French-German Mixed Results on Homeopathy Costs,
Plus Role(s) in Cancer and Public Health
-Botanical
Sales up for 11th Straight Year: 6.8% to $6.4 Billion in 2014
-Triple Aim to
Trickle Up:
Conventional Medical Students (Finally) Being Taught about Cost, Value, and
Effectiveness
Clinical Care
-Between Qi and the RCT: Lessons on the Road to Certification of Licensed
Acupuncturists at San Francisco General Hospital
-Speed-Dating: A Casey Health Institute Method
for Building a High Performing Interprofessional, Integrative Team
-Integrative
Medicine in Delaware: Report from Beebe Health's Cheyenne Luzader, MS
-Quick Links to
Integrative Medicine News in Medical Systems and Communities: August 2015
Academics
-Teaching
Clinic and National College of Natural Medicine Gains Recognition as a Level 3
PCMH/PCPCH
-Georgetown
and Maryland University of Integrative Health Sign Affiliation Agreement
Professions
-New
American Society of Acupuncturists Looks to Take on National Mantle for the
Profession
-Palmer-Gallup
Survey Finds 57% of Adult Americans Would Use Chiropractic; Meeker Comments
-IAYT
Promotes Code of Ethics for Yoga Therapists
International
-"In Name and Concept: The Global Uptake of the
Movement for Integrative Medicine and Health"
-Global Integrator Round-Up from
Global Advances in Health and Medicine - September 2015
Conferences
-Dr.
Rogers' Prize Announces Speakers for Award Event & Free Public Colloquium:
September 25-26, 2015, Vancouver, BC
 Adi Haramati: CENTILE conference
-Nordic Integrative Medicine: 8th European Summit
on Integrative Medicine and Health Care, September 26-27, 2015, Copenhagen
-Haramati's
CENTILE - Promoting Resilience in Health Care Professions: October 18-21, 2015,
Georgetown University
-Academy
of Integrative Health and Medicine: People, Planet, Purpose: October 25-29,
2015, San Diego, California
-American
Public Health Association: Integrative, Complementary and Traditional Health
Practices Section: November 2-4, 2015, Chicago
-SUBMISSION
DEADLINE October 2, 2015: Policy, Education and Clinical Proposals for
International Congress in Integrative Medicine and Health, May 17-20, 2016, Las
Vegas
Media
-Golfer
Jordan Spieth Credits Chiropractor, Joins Chiropractic Marketing Effort
-Integrative
Health Strategist Ruth Westreich Backs John Weeks' Integrator for 2015-2017
_______________________
Policy
Report Published on
Integrative Health Policy Day - with Commitments of Participants - to Honor US
Senator Harkin
 Lead role in publishing report on Harkin policy event
The broad collaboration that honored US Senator Tom Harkin,
on his retirement with a late September 2014 policy day has published
proceedings under the same title: "A
Call to Action on Integrative Health and Medicine Policy - Advancing the Legacy
of U.S. Senator Tom Harkin". Harkin was, sequentially, a champion for
chiropractic, alternative medicine, complementary and alternative medicine and
finally integrative medicine and health, over a 30 plus year career. The day
was convened by a collaboration the primary sponsors of which were ACCAHC,
ACIMH, AIHM, IHPC, IIH, Samueli Institute, Life University, and Georgetown
University, where the event was held.
The booklet, edited by D.C.-based integrative health
consultant and sometimes Integrator
contributor Taylor
Walsh with support from IHPC's Alyssa Wostrel and John Weeks (then with
ACCAHC), includes excerpts of talks in two themes categories. The morning
sessions focused on a review of progress and changes since a 2010 post-ACA symposium
similarly co-led by the Integrative Health Policy Consortium (IHPC - see Affordable Care Act and Beyond: Report from the Stakeholder
Conference on Integrative Health Care) In place of a plaque, the
participants chose to honor Harkin with what Wostrel called "inspirational
commitments made by symposium participants." These on pages 37-40 of the report.
Excerpts from the tributes given to Senator Harkin, by former Congressman Berkley
Bedell, US Senator Barbara Mikulski and others are on pages 41-43. Senator
Harkin's remarks follow.
Comment: One of
Harkin's contributions - among the multitude noted in the proceedings - is a
message he gave to activists in the mid-1990s. If they wanted to have an impact
in Congress, they would be served to learn to collaborate and speak as a single
and thus more powerful voice. It is especially fitting that the planning team
for this invent was, in fact, the broadest collaboration to ever get behind,
sponsor and plan a single integrative health and medicine policy event. It is
fitting as well that the report is hosted on the site of IHPC, the founders of
which took Harkin's message to heart. IHPC's 16 Partners for Health
organizations and the collaborative accomplishments
- which now include closing the loop with this remarkable event - speak to the
value of the Senator's tutelage.
Dismal Outcomes, New Directions: American Botanical Council Feature
on NCCIH's Botanical Strategy - Past, Present and Future
 Gutsy publication of report on research on herbs
The
American Botanical Council has published an 8-page look at botanical research
at the National
Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). The author is
NCCIH's chief program officer for botanicals, Craig
Hopp, PhD.
ABC's founder and executive director Mark Blumenthal prepares readers for what it to come in
his overview note for the issue. He notes that of NCCIH-funded botanical
trials, "most have resulted in less than encouraging outcomes." The article,
entitled "Past and Future Research at NCCIH with Respect to Botanicals," includes
a remarkable table showing outcomes of 17 NCCIH-funded trials. A not-so-sweet
16 include a variant of "no detectable benefit" as the chief outcome. The
single positive trial, on cranberry extract for prevention of urinary tract
infections, resulted in a less than enthusiastic "may be beneficial in some
populations of women." Hopp speaks to the subsequent decision of NCCIH to no
longer fund trials on herbs that focus on specific diseases. Instead, NCCIH is taking
on basic research in such areas as the emerging "omics" and "network
pharmacology."
The latter reflects the emerging awareness that an herb may have a multitude of
impacts on an organism.
Comment: The publication of
this article by ABC in its flagship journal Herbalgram
is gutsy. What is the herb-prescribing and herb-using community to make of these
findings? Hopps is a good guide though NCCIH's thinking, while letting the data
speak for themselves on the findings of minimal effectiveness. The basic
question, however, stays on the table, begging for a metaphor of, say, is there an elephant in the room?
Meantime - see the piece below under Cost
- dietary herbal supplement sales were up 6.8% in 2014.
Glenn Sabin: Names, Nomenclature, Trends - Where We Are
Headed?
 Sabin: exploring branding
Integrative
center consultant and Integrator adviser
Glenn Sabin has stimulated a good deal of chatter with his recent blog: Names, Nomenclature, Trends - Where We are Headed. Sabin's post is
based on trends in Google search terms from 2005 to the present in the
continuously evolving what-do-we-call-ourselves
world of (now) integrative health and medicine. While "alternative
medicine" continues to lead, searches for that term are in a marked decline.
"Complementary medicine" is also sliding. Bumping up at high rates relative to
past usage are "functional medicine" and "integrative health." The term
"integrative medicine" held pretty steady. Sabin concludes: "While it's interesting to
view search trends of the subcategories of integrative health and medicine, and
the steady rise of functional medicine, the biggest takeaway I see is that the
industry continues to have a significant branding challenge."
Comment: Missing from Sabin's analysis are the terms
"holistic health" and "holistic medicine." On the instigation of Molly Roberts, MD, a past president of the American
Holistic Medical Association, Sabin ran a similar query that included those titles.
Roberts shared them with the Integrator.
Remarkably, "holistic health" and "holistic medicine," while in a decline that
stabilized in 2009, rank higher than "alternative medicine" and significantly
higher than the "integrative" names.
The
name game in this field always brings to mind the 1996 decision of the then
marketing genius Oxford Health Plans when it chose to name its pioneering
coverage program "alternative medicine." The HMO tested various names and found
that their prospective members called the services of acupuncturists,
naturopathic doctors, chiropractors and others "alternative medicine." I
suspect that the evocative "holistic" terms fall into a similar
patient-friendly category. That "functional medicine" is on the rise may in
part be due to the fact that, like "alternative" and "holistic," "functional" strikes
an immediate chord for the average person. Part of the branding problem that
Sabin references may be due to a misalignment between what medical
professionals deemed was the best term and those that ring true for their
patients. Interesting thought piece, Glenn!
Economics
French
and German Mixed Results on Homeopathy Costs; Possible Public Health Role?
.jpg) Witt: added costs with homeopathy
Two recent studies reported here in the Global Integrator Blog analyzed the impact of access to
homeopathic services on national health costs. "Economic impact of homeopathic practice in France" reported a 20%
reduction in costs for patients of medical doctors using homeopathic care.
Though visit costs were higher, pharmacy costs were lower. Fewer drugs of
significant public health interest such as antibiotics and pain-killers were
prescribed. Overall the conclusion was that "management
of patients by homeopathic (general practitioners) may be less expensive from a
global perspective and may represent an important interest to public health."
Meantime, an analysis in Germany
that asked if "homeopathic treatment can save costs" found quite the opposite. A research team that included Claudia Witt, MD,
concluded that "compared
with usual care, additional homeopathic treatment was associated with
significantly higher costs." The researchers added: "These analyses did not
confirm previously observed cost savings resulting from the use of homeopathy
in the health care system."
Comment: If one only had the French study, one might
pose this Triple Aim question: What if homeopathics are
nothing better than placebo, clinically, yet 1) lower costs, 2) please the
patients and enhance their experience of care, and 3) have a positive impact on
population health by limiting prescriptions of problematic pharma? Bingo on the
Triple Aim. Interesting conundrum, especially for those who can't get over that
issue about potency and Avogadro's number. The Queen's Physician in the United
Kingdom, homeopathic doctor Peter Fisher, MD promotes the public health value in his recent opinion piece on
homeopathy in the British Medical Journal. Of course, if
the conclusions of the German study prove to better characterize the cost
realities, the Triple Aim claims for homeopathy are then perched on a teetering
two-legged stool.
Botanical Sales up
for 11th Straight Year: 6.8% to $6.4 Billion in 2014
The
American Botanical Council, working with the Nutrition Business Journal and others has published is annual market report for herbs. In 2014, for the
11th straight year, sales of "herbal dietary supplements" were up.
They jumped 6.8%. This was down from the 7.9% in 2013 yet the second biggest
jump of the millennium. Some lead performers in terms of year over year sales
were Echinacea (up 79%), cranberry (up 16%), elderberry (up 64%), turmeric (up
60%) and ivy leaf (up 379%). Ivy leaf was new to the top 40 list. Saw palmetto,
flaxseed and rhodiola were among those for which sales dropped. The authors
note that some in the industry are concerned that the steady growth may end in
2015 following the negative publicity in particular from the New York attorney
general's non-scientific attack on the field.
Comment: From time to
time, the best commentary on a situation is Van Morrison's line from Wild Night: "All the girls walk by dressed up
for each other/and the boys do the boogie-woogie on the corner of the street."
Here the NIH researchers (see article under Policy,
above), dressing up for each other, while the citizen as consumer pay no mind
while keeping up the boogie-woogie of botanical purchases. The Herbalgram editors ran the two stories
back to back.
Triple Aim to Trickle Up: Conventional Medical Students (Finally) Being Taught
about Cost, Value, and Effectiveness
A
recent Kaiser Health News article marked an
important threshold for bringing sanity to medicine in the USA. Here is the
lead in: "It might seem natural for new doctors to learn about the cost of the
care they're providing, but, in fact, doctors have been taught to provide the
best care possible, leaving the cost considerations aside." Then: "Now, in a
stark departure from the past, the vast majority of the country's medical
schools now integrate discussions of cost, value and effectiveness into their
curricula."
The
chief medical officer with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC),
Janis Orlowski, MD, calls the move "a dramatic
change." An AAMC survey reportedly found that "129 of 140
responding medical schools offered a required course on the cost of health care"
for the 2013-2014 school year and nearly 40 percent of the schools said they
also present the issue in elective courses. In one initiative, at UCLA, "In the
everyday teaching that students get about clinical medicine, what medications
to prescribe, what's the name of this diagnosis, we're going to add a layer to
every discussion about the value part of that (economics, value) as well."
Comment: The move from
insanity to sanity is generally in the right direction. The idea that a
practitioner should make therapeutic choices based solely on his or her sense
of what is best for the patient, without reference to cost - or a hard look at any
other value issue - fell hard when the U.S. woke from its sullied idealism. Even
as the so-called Alliance for Progress abroad proved a methods for stimulating
business of US corporations, so medicine's white hat was sullied by something
called "perverse incentives" that has infected
the judgement of doctors and other decision makers on what patients need and
how medicine is to be organized. The advent of the classes documented by the
AAMC are an excellent remedial measure.
For
the integrative health and medicine fields, teaching to cost and value may have
a different sort of value. I explore this in "Perverse Incentives" and the Triple Aim: Overcoming
the Troubled Path to Economic Integration for Integrative Medicine and Health for Global Advances in Health and Medicine
Journal. An initiative with which I have been involved for the Academic
Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care, The Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim, was created in
part to eventually shape curricular content and elements through which cost,
value and effectiveness can be introduced into IHM educational programs.
Clinical Care
Between Qi and the RCT: Lessons on the Road to Certification of Licensed Acupuncturists at San
Francisco General Hospital
 Rick McKinney, MD: driving the 4-year effort
This
article and the generously gifted internal documents describe the
remarkable four-year road to certification for licensed acupuncturists led by Richard McKinney, MD at San Francisco General Hospital
(SFGH). As the process unfolded, the surrounding public health system also
necessarily became involved. The credentialing then opened to a broad set of
facilities. McKinney and his colleague Hali Hammer, MD generously provided
information that could be useful to licensed integrative practitioners of all
kinds, and to medical delivery organizations seeking how-to information. These
include the SFGH "Memorandum of Understanding" with
licensed
acupuncturists and the SFGH "Standardized Procedure for
Licensed Acupuncturists." Each is linked from the overview piece. This article
is part of Integrator media support
for a partnership between the Center for Optimal Integration: Creating Health of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and
Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) and the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine.
 Credentialing LAcs
Comment: The business of
credentialing a licensed acupuncturist for practice in a hospital or health
system can seem like a slam dunk. The basics of accredited education, licensing
and malpractice insurance are in place. Yet somewhere in the chasm between
Qi/Chi and the RCT, the route can take heroic dimensions. This is quite a
story. More importantly, the patience and perseverance of McKinney, the
co-founder of the Integrative Medicine for the Underserved, and Hammer, not
only resulted in a more expansive result. The openness and sharing will assist scores
of others, especially through the exceptional SFGH policy documents. Delivery
organization administrators exploring credentialing will also find much to crib
from here.
Speed-Dating:
A Casey Health Institute Method for Building a High Performing
Interprofessional, Integrative Team
.jpg) Speed-dating to foster team care
We're spending enormous time
and effort to get highly-coordinated processes down to operationalize true
collaborative, integrative health." The comment was made by Casey Health
Institute (CHI) co-founder David Fogel, MD. As reported here,
one method CHI is using to create these teams takes from surprising sources: the
"discipline" of match-making plus that of co-counseling. They call it
"speed-dating." The interprofessional CHI team practices it every Thursday
morning. This interview with CHI integrative practitioner Nicole Farmer, MD
looks at the methods, benefits, challenges and applications of this strategy.
The article is offered via a partnership between CHI and the ACCAHC Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim, the mission of which is to share information on CHI's
effort to model an integrative patient-centered medical home. The Integrator
is a CHI-PIHTA media partner.
Comment: I loved
the idea of "speed-dating" as a tool for interprofessional education when Fogel
mentioned it to me and even more on learning about it from Farmer. What an
efficient way to get multiple practitioners into each other's business in a
short period of time!
Integrative
Medicine in Delaware: Report from Beebe Health's Cheyenne Luzader, MS
.jpg) Luzader: Beebe IHM leader
In
1997, Beebe Healthcare opened the first health system
based integrative center in the state of Delaware led by energy medicine
practitioner Cheyenne Luzader, MS. The center's integrative pain
program is featured in this Delaware
News Journal piece together with the "innovative integrative pain
management program" at Nemours/A.I. duPont Hospital for Children. (Notably, Delaware's
medical professionals prescribe more opioids per capita than in any other
state.) In an e-mail, Luzader also shared a separate July 2015 news article that focuses on
the re-emergence of acupuncture detox programs, including the program for
smoking cessation at Beebe.
Luzader
is also part of a state led planning effort. She wrote: "Rita Landgraf, State
Secretary of Health and Social Service, invited me to represent integrative
medicine in meetings to form a new state healthcare initiative. We have been
working on this for two years now. The plan recognizes state licensed
chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage therapists as part of the patient
care team." Luzader notes that she is a fan of the National Pain Strategy "as a route to
more integrative care." She urges others to examine the strategy as a possible
boon to their work.
Comment: I learned of
Luzader's work from colleague Glenn Sabin, whose blog piece on language is in the Policy section of this Round-up. Pleasing to be able to give
her work, going back 18 years, some visibility. Beebe's program is among the
longest continuous health system-based complementary and integrative health
programs in the United States.
Quick Links to
Integrative Medicine News in Medical Systems and Communities: August 2015
This Integrator feature is a quick capture of highlights from
stories on the web relative to integrative medicine in the prior month. Here
are 20 involving medical delivery systems and 11 more in
communities.
Of particular note are a widely picked up article on integrative care for the
elderly based on research out of Thomas Jefferson University; publication of
research on acupuncture and its potential role in managing blood pressure, led
by John Longhurst, MD at the Susan Samueli Center at UC Long Beach; and a
review of whole system research on integrative health and medicine in delivery
organizations from Australia's Alan Bensoussan, PhD that discovered how very little
quality information is yet available on the topic.
Academics
Teaching Clinic
and National College of Natural Medicine Gains Recognition as a Level 3
PCMH/PCPCH
.jpg) Dehen: lead NCNM to Level 3 PCPCH
In
a unique development in integrative health and medicine academics, the teaching
clinic at the Portland, Oregon-based National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) has been awarded
Level 3 recognition as what that state calls a "Patient Centered Primary Care Home (PCPCH)." A release from NCNM notes that this is the highest
award level that the Oregon Healthcare Authority (OHA) grants. The NCNM effort
was led by Regina Dehen, ND, LAc, NCNM's dean of
clinical operations and chief medical officer. Said Dehen: "From a PCPCH care
perspective, NDs meet the OHA requirement of patient-centered care, which
addresses a patient's overall care. What's new at the NCNM Clinic is that we've
created ‘healthcare teams,' based on the PCPCH model that assures each
patient's continuity of care."
Comment: This is a remarkable
accomplishment and one that can have significant downstream impact. All of
NCNM's clinicians - naturopathic doctors, acupuncture and Oriental medicine
professionals, nutritionists and others - will henceforward be experiencing
what it is to work inside the outcomes and assessment focused environment of a
PCPCH. Congratulations to Dehen and her NCNM team. For those interested in more
on the NCNM initiative, Dehen spoke on the work in this June 2015 webinar: If I Ran the Zoo: Quality Measures and their Alignment
with Integrative Health and Medicine.
Georgetown and
Maryland University of Integrative Health Sign Affiliation Agreement
 Georgetown partnership
Georgetown
University and the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) have signed
an affiliation agreement. Elements
reportedly include commitments to "shared faculty, mutual support for common
and independent initiatives, and preferred admissions and advanced standing for
graduates of each university into academic programs of the other." Georgetown's
integrative health leader Adi Haramati, PhD provided the commencement talk at MUIH's June
graduation. Frank Vitale, MUIH's president and CEO positions the
move as "one more example of the work that MUIH is doing to build meaningful
partnerships with other universities, to build bridges between conventional and
integrative care, and to provide opportunities for our students and faculty."
Professions
New American
Society of Acupuncturists Looks to Take on National Mantle for the Profession
A
September article in Acupuncture Today has announced that a new 501c6 national organization
for the acupuncture and Oriental medicine (AOM) field, the American Society of
Acupuncturists, is now part of the landscape. The organization has some immediate
credibility as it houses that field's Council of State Associations: "The ASA
is a maturation of the CSA, which has been an informal collaboration in
evolution for 5 to 10 years. The structure of the ASA has essentially been
‘beta tested' via the work of the CSA, and so we are founding this organization
on a solid bedrock of experience."
Twenty-four
state organizations are founding voting members of the ASA. The article
describes the relationship with the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental
Medicine (AAAOM).
The CSA, which was born out of the AAAOM, decided not to merge back into it.
Will they be competitors? This is the answer in the article: "The ASA and the
AAAOM have agreed in professional discussion to ‘play in parallel' for a few
years. Each organization may have gifts for the profession, and there is
certainly enough work to be done." The initial ASA business model leaves a
great deal of power with the state associations as membership in the state
association gives one status with the ASA. The ASA does not appear at this
point to have a website. ASA's Facebook page is here. The founders are
working on finding necessary resources and industry partners.
Comment: It will be
interesting to see how this parallel play will work out. AAAOM has been limping
along with a paying membership that reflects no more that 2%-3% of the 30,000
licensed acupuncturists. Many view the AAAOM as being mired in challenging
personality issues, as featured in this two-part Acupuncture Today feature: AAAOM - Making Promises it Can't Keep. Let's see what this new phase will mean for that
profession's troubled effort to create a quality national organization.
Palmer-Gallup
Survey Finds 57% of Adult Americans Would Use Chiropractic; Meeker Comments
.jpg) Poll shows high chiropractic use, interest
A first-ever nationally representative survey, commissioned
through the Gallup organization by Palmer College of Chiropractic, found
that 33.6 million (14%) of American adults sought chiropractic care in 2014.
This is up from "a reported estimate of 20.6 million in 2012." Of those
surveyed, 57% say they would be "likely" to visit a chiropractor if they had
back or neck pain. Remarkably, over half said they have already tried
chiropractic and over a quarter said they would use chiropractors first for
back or neck pain. The entire Gallup report is here and a related
scientific study, led by William Weeks, MD, MBA and involving chiropractic researchers
Bill Meeker, DC, MPH and Christine Goertz, DC, PhD is here. The research team found that "a higher
per-capita supply of DCs was associated with higher utilization rates and
showed a more favorable regard for DCs." The poll's official name, "Gallup-Palmer College of Chiropractic Inaugural
Report: Americans' Perceptions of Chiropractic" suggests that
this might be the first of annual reports.
.jpg) Meeker: comments on poll
Comment: For chiropractors, presence,
apparently, makes the heart grow fonder. The usage found by Gallup is more than
double that found in other recent surveys. The Integrator contacted Meeker, the president
of Palmer West, with a query about this differential.
He replied: "We have been all over that question, and the correct answer
is no one knows for sure. When we repeat the survey in future years we will get
a better handle on that. For sure the methods of different surveys are
different, and that could be it. The other answer is that there has been a true
increase in use. Personally, I think it's both, but cannot provide strong
evidence."
Meeker continues: "However, Gallup was so surprised that
they checked for use in two other completely separate surveys going on
simultaneously with other also randomly drawn samples, and the use rate was
virtually identical. Gallup stands by their own data. We shall see when the
next Federal surveys are completed to see if growth occurred in their method.
Finally, we should remind ourselves that the margin of error for Gallup was 2
percentage points. Ditto more or less for the 8.5 percent in the NIHS survey.
Which potentially puts both sets of estimates within a point or two of each
other. Conclusion. Hard to come up with a one-liner explanation."
IAYT Promotes Code of Ethics for Yoga
Therapists
 Taking on ethics
The profession-building and standard-setting work of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT)
continues with work on a Code of Ethics for Yoga Therapists presently on their
plates. John Kepner, IAYT
executive director, shares that the work also includes "two necessary
complements, ‘Grounds for Disciplinary Actions' and ‘Procedures for
Disciplinary Action.'" Kepner comments on the process: "While it is not easy to
write a code of ethics, it's much harder to develop an actual process to
enforce it. However, it's a necessary part of becoming a real profession."
Kepner surmises that the work on the code is "only possible
because IAYT accreditation is rapidly becoming a required recognition for
in-depth yoga therapist training programs." Then Kepner credited the help
of colleagues at the National Certification
Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM): "NCCAOM had the
best integrated and comprehensive code and procedures for enforcement that we
saw, so we borrowed a lot from them." Kepner noted that this step in maturation
for the field was again abetted through IAYT's membership in the Academic Consortium from Complementary and Alternative
Health Care, through which IAYT come to know NCCAOM representatives.
.jpg) Kepner: honored
Comment: As a fan
of IAYT and of Kepner's guidance of the organization, I was pleased to see him
honored with a front page photo for the Summer 2015 Yoga Therapy Today. Kepner explained the vestment: "In the Indian
tradition, its customary to give presenters and ‘dignitaries' as they call them,
a scarf when they speak. I received this at the end of our last
conference. The President of our Board, Dilip Sarkar, MD, who is
originally from India, had them custom made in India."
International
"In
Name and Concept: The Global Uptake of the Movement for Integrative Medicine
and Health"
.jpg) Column on global trends re: integrative medicine
The title of the column is: "In Name and Concept: The Global Uptake of the
Movement for Integrative Medicine and Health." Documented is the "uroborus-like" integrative health and medicine
activity between industrial and less developed nations. The process: 1)
industrial nations embrace indigenous, traditional practices from around the
world; 2) elevate them into regular medical delivery as part of "integrative
medicine" programs; then, 3) the integrative concept is exported back to the nations
that sourced the traditional methods in the first place where 4) the
"integrative concept" is used as a means to elevate the value of the
traditional medicines practices there.
Comment: I love this loop:
"The spiraling interconnectivity poses the question of what might be achieved
if these linkages were engaged with greater intentionality. How might diverse
parties go about forging additional ties? What are the elements of a global
movement for integrative health and medicine? What might be reasonably
accomplished?" What ideas do you have?
Global Integrator Round-Up from Global Advances in Health and Medicine
- September 2015
This
is a monthly Integrator feature,
based on activities summarized in the September
Global Integrator Round-up I write for the website of the peer-reviewed Global Advances in Health and Medicine Journal (GAHMJ). There was exceptional
global news in August on multiple fronts. In South Africa, there was a model
inclusion of traditional healers in a public health effort relative to
communicable diseases. In the USA, a conference focused on the intersection
between integrative health and medicine and community health, a rich yet underdeveloped
vein of mission-centric, integrative possibility. In India, the government won two
intellectual property wins for the AYUSH legacy against Colgate-Palmolive and a
UK pharma company. Interesting, also, to see the work of the integrative
psychiatry network in the Netherlands. In the Amazon, a tea company is seeking
to model responsible partnership with indigenous people from whom they are
sourcing their product. Plus, 77 Quick Links. GAHMJ's mission is "to catalyze
whole-person and whole-system care and healing."
Comment: A remarkable
reality is that, while some 60%-80% of the people of Africa still get a
significant part of their primary care via traditional medicine and local
traditional medicine practitioners, institutional medicine, whether local or
NGO-based, still rarely directly engages these practitioners as part of the
team. The logic seems to be that since these practitioners often no have formal
academic standards, they can't be engaged. Thus the story from South Africa was
particularly warming: South Africa Summit Models Inclusion of Traditional
Healers in HIV, Tuberculosis Campaign. Clearly, methods
exist for these healers to be respectfully included as team players in health.
Conferences
Note: Selection
bias. Many of these conferences and meetings are ones at which I will be
presenting or am otherwise involved in some capacity. There are certainly
others among the multitude of conferences that deserve mention. This is an
irregular mention of a few notable meetings.
Dr. Rogers' Prize
Announces Speakers for Award Event & Free Public Colloquium: September
25-26, 2015, Vancouver, BC
 $250,000 to go to Canadian leader
One
Friday evening, September 25, 2015 a Canadian leader in complementary and
integrative medicine will discover that they have been awarded the $250,000 Dr.
Rogers prize.
The prize is awarded every two years. The next say, a free Public Colloquium
will feature an interesting trio: Joseph Sung, MD, the vice chancellor at the Chinese University
of Hong Kong,
functional medicine leader Jeffrey Bland, PhD, and environmental medicine
thought leader Robert Rountree, MD. Tickets are still available for the gala awards banquet.
Nordic
Integrative Medicine: 8th European Summit on Integrative Medicne and
Health Care, September 26-27, 2015, Copenhagen
.jpg) Noble-Letort: NIM founder
The
conference line-up is powerful: participants from 29 countries, 45 universities
and over 100 scientific presentations. All are part of the upcoming 8th
European Congress for Integrative Medicine's Global Summit on Integrative Medicine and Health Care, September 26-27,
2015 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The meeting will be convened by a two-year-old
integrative medicine organization in the northern European landscape, Nordic
Integrative Medicine (NIM).
On
the day prior, NIM is producing an "Invitational Policy Roundtable on Nordic
Models of Care." Participating in the latter are such notables as the Karolinska Institute's Torkel
Falkenberg, PhD; a representative from the Australasian Institute for
Integrative Medicine, Victor Dzau, MD, the president of the USA National
Academy of Medicine, and George Lewith, PhD, the policy meeting's chair. Dzau
will also provide the opening keynote to the Global Summit. The Summit will
be closed by Victoria Maizes, MD, the director of the University of Arizona
Center for Integrative Medicine. All speakers are here.
Comment: Quite a meeting.
The organization, founded by California-transplant Shelley Noble-Letort, PhD, has set some
remarkable goals. Take a look.
Haramati's CENTILE
- Promoting Resilience in Health Care Professions: October 18-21, 2015,
Georgetown University
 CENTILE conference
Georgetown
University's tenured professor Aviad (Adi) Haramati, PhD, is a long-time leader in promoting the
practice of mind-body health and medicine in health professional education and
in medical practice. From October 18-21, 2015, Haramati is bringing his
professional passion and the network of leaders he has met in this field to the
fore with this International Conference to Promote Resilience,
Empathy and Well-being in Healthcare Professionals. The topics are extraordinary and range from
promotion of humanism in medicine and medical education through listening and
story medicine to neuroscience.
Comment: It is a truism
that if health professionals are not themselves attending to their personal
well-being that they are unlikely to serve as good guides to their patients.
Making commonplace the themes of this conference is a necessary component of work
to transform the delivery of medicine and health. Here's hoping that this event
draws widely. I look forward to being present in a media capacity.
Academy of
Integrative Health and Medicine: People, Planet, Purpose: October 25-29, 2015,
San Diego, California
.jpg) AIHM's 2015 conference
The
second AIHM conference, has a robust line-up with a yet rare interprofessional mix assembled through
a similarly interprofessional conference team led by Tabatha
Parker, ND,
AIHM's director of education. The event, which drew over 800 in 2014, will
conclude this year for the first time with a party and awards banquet. The
dozens of presenters include Deepak Chopra, MD, Joseph Pizzorno, ND, Harriet Beinfeld,
LAc, Dean Ornish, MD, as well as this writer. Those interested in AIHM's new
Fellowship will have an opportunity to meet with director Tieraona Low
Dog, MD,
who will also present at the conference.
Comment: Disclosure note(s): I am an active member of
the AIHM Board of Directors. The conference segments with which I
will be involved include a plenary that I look forward to sharing entitled
"Connective Tissue: A Winner's History
for Integrative Health and Medicine." The other is a panel on which I'll
moderate and briefly present with a top notch group of colleagues: "Strategies
for Integrative Research to Rapidly Transform Payment and Delivery." The team
includes Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, Jeff Dusek, PhD, and Ryan Bradley, ND, MPH.
Terrific group. The rest of the conference is as rich.
American Public
Health Association: Integrative, Complementary and Traditional Health Practices
Section: November 2-4, 2015, Chicago
 Integrative, Traditional and Complementary section
In
recent years, the Integrative, Complementary and Traditional Health
Practices (ICTHP) Section of the American Public Health Association has
continuously staked a more significant place in this organization. This year,
the ICTHP content is a 3-day program that ranges from integrative health in
chronic disease to integrative models relative to policy and payment. Multiple posters will also be displayed. The
program is being developed via leadership that includes Beth Sommers, PhD, LAc,
MPH and Sivarama "Prasad" Vinjamury, MD
(Ayurveda), MAOM, MPH.
Comment: I am excited to be able to attend much of the
meeting, as media and then as speaker. On Tuesday, November 4, I will share the
work, referenced above under "Economics," of the Project for Integrative Health and the Triple Aim.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
October 2, 2015: Policy, Education and Clinical Proposals for International
Congress in Integrative Medicine and Health, May 17-20, 2016, Las Vegas
.jpg) Mixing research, policy, education and clinical
A
deadline is rapidly approaching for submissions to the May 2016 International Congress
on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH). The Congress is the first of a
kind. To create what may prove a unique confluence of energies across the
integrative health and medicine fields, the 60+ medical school member Academic
Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (ACIMH) brought in 3 new
partners: for policy, Integrative Health Policy Consortium; for clinical,
Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine; and for education, the Academic
Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care. These are in addition
to research partner the International Society for Complementary Medicine
Research. The non-research submissions on policy,
education and clinical topics need not be data supported. Anyone is invited to
submit on a topic they believe has merit.
Comment: I was honored to
be asked to work with the Organizing Committee for the Congress. Here's hoping
that many will see the potential potency of strong presentations that cut
across all 4 of these policy tracks. Consider submitting!
Media
Golfer Jordan
Spieth Credits Chiropractor, Joins Chiropractic Marketing Effort
.jpg) Spieth: new spokesperson for chiropractors
The
September 2015 Bulletin from the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP) reports this: "In
May, Masters Tournament winner, 21-year-old Jordan
Spieth,
recognized those who significantly contributed to his impressive victory,
including his doctor of chiropractic (DC), Troy Van Biezen, DC." Spieth went on to with the U.S.
Open and is presently the top golfer in the world. F4CP has brought Spieth onto
the organization's team of "chiropractic champions." He will be one of the
marketing faces for F4CP's impressive marketing campaign. Spieth's
chiropractor, Van Biezen, "currently travels full-time with Spieth and several
other professional golfers, providing chiropractic care as regularly as once or
twice per day," according to this article,
Comment: From an
organizer's perspective, the remarkable thing about this story was not so much
that Spieth used a chiropractor. Rather, it was that the F4CP was in place to
swoop in and make the most of it. All the other integrative health professions
would be served to mimic the F4CP fund-raising strategy.
Integrative Health
Strategist Ruth Westreich Backs John Weeks' Integrator
for 2015-2017
.jpg) Westreich: invests in the Integrator
In
a notice to Integrator subscribers,
John Weeks (the present writer) celebrated an investment Ruth Westreich has made in the Integrator: Ruth Westreich & the Westreich Foundation Partner
with the Integrator for 2015-2017. Weeks, who recently ended 8.5 years of a
major commitment in building and directing ACCAHC, shared his
excitement in putting writing front-and-center again: "Ruth is buying me time
to make the best use of the Integrator, the Integrator
community, and my other writing to help forward the movement. Ruth's investment
provides an exciting lease on a more robust writing and communications period
ahead." FON Consulting's Glenn Sabin wrote
on Westreich's investment: "Ruth Westreich Sponsors John Weeks' The Integrator
Blog: Why it Matters."
Westreich
has been a creative marketing and strategic planning director in the
non-for-profit and for profit sectors for over 30 years. She is co-author of
the soon-to-be-published FLASH: Why Creativity Changes Everything. Her
contributions to the integrative health and medicine field have been multiple
and wide-ranging. Westreich has served at various times on the boards or
advisory bodies of the Samueli Institute, UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine, Cal State San
Marcos Institute for Palliative Care, Bravewell Collaborative, Bastyr
University, UCLA Arts and Healing, Academic
Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) and the
Consciousness and Healing Institute.
Comment: One significant
outcome: I anticipate finding ways to work with readers to stimulate more
interdisciplinary and interprofessional dialogue - curating your voices,
instead of simply more of my own. This will I am sure be welcome to all!
Thanks, Ruth!
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