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Postings Through December 31, 2008
Written by John Weeks   
Sunday, 14 December 2008
 
 
John Weeks, editor/publisher
John Weeks
The Integrator is made possible through the generosity of NCMIC,Alternative Medicine Integration GroupInner Harmony Group, Institute for Health and Productivity Management, Integrative Practitioner Online/Healthcare Symposium and many other individuals who choose to voluntarily contribute. Thank you all. 

Summaries and links below for prior 6 weeks-2 months. Open any article by clicking on the title.
 
Send your comments to

for inclusion in a future article.

 
Enjoy! -- John
 
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December 31, 2008

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Report shows current CAM use
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: Dec. 1-Dec. 31, 2008

New CDC report shows CAM use at 38%, but over 50% among our indigenous ... AARP, US Chamber and Prince's Foundation join Bravewell-led coalition to promote health-oriented reform ... More on Dasche/Obama community discussions from Jonas'/Samueli gathering, Hawaii Consortium, ND group in Connecticut, a Reiki leader and the ACA ... URAC names first accredited wellness programs ... Institute for Functional Medicine leader David Jones, MD leads Integrative Practitioner discussion on the role of the randomized controlled trial ... Naturopathic physician-run wellness program for automobile dealers earns Vermont Gold Medal award for 3rd straight year ... Oprah opens a page to homeopathy ... Former American Whole Health integrative medicine director and SCNM founder Michael Cronin, ND takes board roles at National University of Health Sciences and the AANP ... Samueli Center and Arizona Center offer CME programs ... Nursing site lists top 100 herb-related blogs ... More ...

December 28, 2009

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The Coming of the Light
Coming of the Light: Integrator Top 10 for Integrative Medicine
and Integrated Practice from 2008

On winter solstice 2006, the Integrator began a tradition of announcing a Top 10 from the previous year which will most support the coming of the light for integrative practice in the New Year. Here is the 2008 Integrator Top 10 for integrative policy, practice, research and professional activity. Like last year, 9 are listed here. What are your suggestions for #10? Thanks to all these individuals behind the good work noted here. Happy reading, and reflecting, on the year that was, and the year to come. More ...



December 23, 2008

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Wayne Jonas, MD; A Wellness Initiative for the Nation
Invitation from Wayne Jonas, MD to a Daschle/Health Care Community Discussion on a Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN)

Here is a great opportunity to participate in a tremendously important initiative. On December 29, 2008, Wayne Jonas, MD will host a Health Care Community Discussion as urged by HHS Secretary-designee Tom Daschle. The subject is a draft program for an ambitious, transformative "Wellness Initiative for the Nation" (WIN). Jonas and a group of colleagues have been working up this white paper, which includes an over-arching Wellness Trust, special provider certification, consumer tool kits, business tax incentives and more to "create a wellness culture and industry." Click in to this article to see the key concepts. You can come in person or be wired in. Jonas is in touch with some key transition players. Daschle and his colleagues have said they will attend one or more of these Health Care Community Discussions. If I'm Daschle, I'm going to this one. More ...


December 8, 2008

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Barack Obama - solicits ideas from grassroots
Integrator Action Bulletin: Obama's Call, IOM Summit Registration, Integrative Healthcare Symposium Panels, plus

  Exchange of ideas on healthcare policy has not been this heated for 15 years. This Integrator Action Bulletin links you with ways to be involved with shaping the Obama agenda and the action strategy of the integrative practice community. I have on good evidence thayt for those who submit to Obama's online forum, the staff of the Community Organizer-in-Chief actually respond. Another link takes you to an initiative led by Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Tom Daschle's grassroots push for community forums on health care. Reader Daphne White invites you to her community discussion, focusing on integrative medicine ... Then, two alerts from inside the integrative health community. First, sign-up is open for the IOM's National Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public. Admission is free, but participation is limited. Registration is also open for the Integrative Healthcare Symposium on February 19-21 in New York City. There a myriad of clinical and business offerings will be spiced with two top flight policy panels where we will explore roadmaps for a more influential future for integrative practice. More ...





Issue #55 - November 28, 2008


November 28, 2008

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Group starts CAM PPO
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: Oct 16-Nov 28, 2008

Cleveland-based Manufacturer Parker Hannifin created a rich CAM benefit which has stimulated the development of a national CAM PPO of America network with affiliations with the AANP and Massage Envy ... Integrative Practitioner tops 5000 members, earns Stevie nomination, names Jacobs, Blumenthal to advisory roles ... Day-late, dollar-short: McCain weighs in on chiropractic ... UCSF Osher seeks medical director: Obama-esque leader needed ... Helfgott Research Institute update ... Tai Sophia and Johns Hopkins nursing advance their relationship; AANP's Howard benefits from program ... Naturopathic policy action in Washington State: hard to imagine this in state's where NDs are not licensed ... Georgia chiros get parity boost from insurance commissioner ... AHPA's Dentali in appointment, $100,000 grant for healthy aging to Bastyr, plus ... More ...


November 28, 2008

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New wellness accerditation standards
"Wellness" Advances: Policy, Employers, MPA Media's Program, Accreditation Standards, IOM Summit, plus

 

US Senate health policy leader Tom Harkin (D-IA) is talking of recreating the U.S. as a "wellness society" ... Reports from Towers Perrin and Aon show employer interests in wellness programs are up, despite the economic downturn ... Large complementary and alternative healthcare media firm, MPA Media, announces plans to create Integrated Wellness Pavilions at major trade shows ... URAC, the national accrediting body, promulgates standards for Comprehensive Wellness Accreditation ... The IOM-Bravewell Summit explores wellness themes ... Are we seeing a paradigm shift toward health and wellness? Will integrative practice professions be seen as leaders in this shift, which most view as their birthright? More ...

November 26, 2008

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Briggs: a move toward effectiveness research
New "Effectiveness" Focus for NCCAM:  An Interview with Director Josephine Briggs, MD

When Josephine "Josie" Briggs, MD took over as director of the NIH NCCAM in January of this year, she promised to start her tenure "listening" before she would begin to put her stamp on agency. She did, and still is. But she has also gotten clear on some new directions. In this interview, Briggs promises an agenda which will focus more on "effectiveness research" and "real world outcomes." A key focal area: pain. Here is the interview with Briggs, engaged for Integrator sponsor IntegrativePractitioner.com. Briggs will be speaking to these issues at a panel I will be moderating at the February 19-21 Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City. More ...


November 26, 2008

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WHO Congress promotes traditional medicine to revitalize primary care
"Beijing Declaration" from WHO Congress on Traditional Medicine Promotes Use in Primary Care

  The first Congress on Traditional Medicine of the World Health Organization (WHO) was convened in Beijing, China November 7-9, 2008. Participating were 1100 experts from 70 countries. Included was a significant contingent of chiropractors organized by the World Federation of Chiropractic. The Congress promulgated the "Beijing Declaration," included here, which also calls on countries to integrate conventional and traditional medicine. A particular focus, in the Declaration and comments from the WHO. director general, is to support the broader WHO campaign to revitalize primary care. Will the IOM's National Summit on Integrative Medicine align with this call? More ...


November 26, 2008

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Getting out from under chronic debt
Bankruptcy for InnoVision: Publisher of ATHM, IMCJ and Advances Expects Recovery under Chapter 11

  InnoVision Health Media, the publisher of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal, Advances in Mind-Body Medicine and consumer media has entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The filing came despite its "best year ever" on both the professional and consumer sides. InnoVision's operations have been hounded by debt assumed when the group of publications was purchased in 2004. Rob Lutz, president and group publisher, told the Integrator that the firm recently secured financing and "expects to continue its growth." More ...

November 23, 2008

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HHS nominee Tom Daschle
Appointments in the Obama Era: What's Up for Integrative Medicine and Health Freedom?

 

 
Obama transition watchers have noted a number of nominations which may bode well, or ill, for the integrative practice community and natural products industry. Most give a thumbs up to appointments for former U.S. Senators Tom Daschle and U.S. Senator Tom Harkin. Congressman Henry Waxman, who has taken over a key role in the House, is a cause of concern for some. Meantime, leading "health freedom" advocates believe that the sky may be falling with the Democratic majorities: writer Peter Chowka forecasts that we may be witnessed "the end of alternative medicine" and health freedoms. Here is a run-down with comments from members of the community. The stage is first set with a Cliff's Notes review of action under Clinton and Bush. More ...
 
 


November 22, 2008

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More meaning via the new focus on effectiveness research?
Where the $120 Goes and Where it Would Best Serve

[From my Integrative Practitioner column]  When my neighbor and colleague Tom Ballard, RN, ND, a primary care physician in the Seattle marketplace, sent me a letter-to-the-editor he'd had published in the Seattle Times, I began thinking about a hopeful, practical research agenda for NCCAM. Ballard wrote to the editor that an article on MRSA failed to note the contribution to the problem via our overuse of antibiotics. Ballard concluded: “Perhaps the crisis of MRSA will help swing the medical pendulum back toward a whole-systems approach to infections: First strengthen the host and utilize natural compounds, saving drug therapy for last." I took Ballard's hope and upped it a notch: Might the new focus on effectiveness research by incumbent NCCAM director Josephine Briggs, MD provide us an opportunity to frame far more interesting questions, such as Ballard suggests, and yield significant individual and population benefits from NCCAM's work? More ...





Issue #54 - October 29, 2008



October 29, 2008

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Subsidiary of the American Hospital Association
AHA-Health Forum 2008 Report: 37% of Hospitals Have Some Complementary and Alternative Medicine

  37% of hospitals offered some form of complementary and alternative medicine in 2007, up from 26% in 2005. This is the marquis finding from the recently published Summary of Results of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Survey of Hospitals from the American Hospital Association/Health Forum. However, a low response rate raises initial questions about whether the trend line is positive. In addition, inclusion of many key modalities in hospitals that offer CAM is actually down. Here are data and analysis from this always useful pulse on the uptake of non-conventional therapies into US hospitals. Credit AHA/Health Forum and Sita Ananth, MHA, the lead author. Is CAM inclusion in hospital care actually trending upward?  More ...


October 26, 2008

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Commentator Sara Eisenberg, MS
Your Comments Forum
: 8 Voices on Integrator Themes

  Dan Redwood, DC on my assertion that chiropractic is historically Republican leaning ... International Association of Yoga Therapists leader John Kepner on two guiding lights for his work from the White House Commission ... Historian and holistic nurse Martha Libster, PhD, RN, CNS on lessons from the mid-1800s ... ND student Naini Kohli urges a patient focus in the dialogue over who owns integrative medicine ... AsOne Coaching Institute founder Linda Bark, RN shares data from Aussie study showing huge return for employers ... Michael Levin wonders whether new data on the conscious use of placebos by internists and rheumatologists suggests openness to the mind-body connection ... Herbalist and hospital integrative medicine leader Sara Eisenberg, MS challenges my perspective on the column by Bhaswati Bhattacharya, MD  ...  Georgetown law professor and long-time AOM leader Sherman Cohn, JD argues that patient care has been changed by the integrative practice movement ...  Glenn Hoey, ND comments on business realities of a naturopathic practice. More ...

October 23, 2008

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Setting federal presence, agenda, for AOM
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: October 1-15, 2008

MGMA says some MDs turning to alternative medicine, supplement sales, for business reasons ... Naturopathic specialty board established to promote aesthetic medicine ... American Acupuncture Council promotes programs to get acupuncturists and chiropractors to explore anti-aging medicine ... NCCAM names NIH veteran Jack Killen, MD as Deputy Director ... Institute of Medicine announces agenda for its February 2009 National Summit on Integrative Medicine, not yet much sign of "integration" ... New American Hospital Association report finds 37% of hospitals offering some CAM, a 40% increase in the percent since 2005 ... Yale-Griffin integrative medicine center in new facility ... Donna Karan's Urban Zen initiative brands "new category of integrative practitioner" ... Thumbs up for natural childbirth in Milbank study, and article by obstetrician Bethany Hays, MD ... USA Today features Pentagon's exploration of alternatives ... Plus, Annie Appleseed, patient-centered integrative cancer conference and Integrative medicine Alliance practitioner-centered weekend ... Three of Calabrese's mentees earn NIH awards ...  More ...

October 22, 2008

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Obama & McCain: Where are they on integrative practices?
Presidential Race: McCain & Obama on Complementary Medicine, Integrative Practitioners on the Candidates

With a little digging, I found some direct statements from the Obama and McCain campaigns on complementary and alternative medicine, reported here. On a more limited issue, the American Chiropractic Association notified its members of a very favorable view of chiropractic from Obama. Despite historically Republican leanings in the chiropractic profession, the ACA is quiet on McCain. Meantime, Integrator sponsor Integrative Practitioner Online asked its members for their perspectives on which candidate would be the most meaningful to integrative practices. The findings are here. I close with a brief, personal perspective, based on alignment with the values that attracted me to these fields 25 years ago. More ...


October 19, 2008

ImageNCCAM Research Spending 2005-2007 by Modality: What are the Big 3? Any Surprises?

Integrator reader and sometimes commentarist Taylor Walsh recently asked staff at the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine for data on the specific amounts of grant awards for specific modalities in fiscal years 2005-2007. Walsh, the founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Life Pages, shared the data with the Integrator. Here are his findings. What do you suppose are the top 3 modalities? What is the percentage of NCCAM's $362-million for those three years which were spent on the top three?  How does this meet your sense of priorities? More ...

October 19, 2008

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True North's Integrative "Decision Circle" Offers Perspective on a Democratic Model of Integration

One never knows what a discussion will engender. Witness this contribution from the multidisciplinary, clinical/administrative "Decision Circle" of the True North Health Center in Maine. The 9-person group is responding to a portion of the Integrator dialogue on who owns "integrative medicine." A writer offered a view of an ideal integrative medical model in which members from various disciplines are each respected and then opines that it "doesn't exist"? The True North team begs to differ. Here we have a look at an existing model. The piece is co-signed by the medical director Bethany Hays, MD, an ND associate medical director, 2 nutritionists (one a nurse midwife), another MD, a social worker and 3 administrators. They describe value that has come from "sitting in circle" for major decisions. More ...








Issue #53 - October 13, 2008


October 8, 2008

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James Gordon, MD, reflects on the White House Commission
White House Commission Chair James Gordon, MD on Federal Policy in Integrative Practice: Looking Back - Looking Forward

[Written for Integrative Practitioner Online] This Presidential election season medical reform is in the air. I decided to interview James Gordon, MD, who chaired the most concerted look at the potential for a federal government role in fostering integrative care in the United States. The report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy was published 6 years ago. I asked Gordon to recall his hopes for those recommendations, then to enumerate where the Commission's work has had value and where it has come up short. Gordon, author of Manifesto for a New Medicine (and more recently Unstuck), grades the outcomes of the Commission's work - both the government response and that of the integrative practice community. Do we need to have a national Office of some kind, to more fully move this agenda? More ...


October 5, 2008

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Stephen Bolles, DC
Stephen Bolles: Capstone View of MD-ND-CAM Bashing - "Professions that Seek Wholeness Seek Integration"

  The perspective on integration of Stephen Bolles, DC is shaped by leadership in developing the Woodwinds integrative clinic, service as a vice president at the multidisciplinary Northwestern Health Sciences University, a couple years inside United Healthcare and clinical practice as a chiropractor. So when Bolles wrote and said he had read the series of heated exchanges on MD-ND bashing and ownership of "integrative medicine," I was curious to see what he'd say. I wasn't disappointed: Bolles speaks of the "halo effect" of (MD) medical education, the depth of disenfranchisement of many MDs, political medicine, from political/AMA medicine, and how disenfranchisement has kept the non-MD professions from exploring integration to the same degree as MDs. Take a read. More ...

October 5, 2008

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Grant to set up CAM-IM practice-based research network
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Health Care Round-up: September 16-30, 2008

New 18-practitioner integrative clinic and robust growth at Samaritan Health Services ...  Inner Harmony celebrates 10th year and moves to new space at Scranton's Mercy Hospital ... HRSA in $310,000 grant to Palmer College of Chiropractic and Jefferson's integrative medicine prorgam for multidisciplinary practice-based CAM-IM research network ... National College of Natural Medicine expands ... AHEC grant funds scholarship for fellowship at Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine to help serve underserved ... Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, a research-education-integration leader for AOM marks 25th year ... Board of NADA, the acu-detox group, affirms value of 5-point protocol for stress, pain management, not just detox ... Report on national massage therapy clinical practice guidelines funded and developed through Massage Therapy Foundation ... American Chiropractic Association announces policy-related action of its House of Delegates ... Signature Supplements gets high tech business development loan from state of Maryland ... Update on Minnesota-based Collaboration Health Care group started by form American Chiropractic Network team, plus more. More ...

October 3, 2008

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Columnist Michael Levin
Michael Levin: On Globalization, Melamine Contamination and Responsibilities of Integrative Practitioners

Integrator adviser and columnist Michael Levin often speaks to us from the discomforting chasm between the aspirations of integrative medicine and current realities regarding the natural healthcare products which most integrative practitioners prescribe in their offices. Here, Levin focuses on "economic adulteration" of dietary supplements in the recent story of melamine contamination of infant formulas which caused sickness and death in China. What are the integrative practitioner's responsibilities in raising the bar? More ...

October 3, 2008

Historic Alliance: Integrative Practice Groups Unite Behind Congressional Resolution Promoting Wellness

[From my Integrative Practitioner column] A medical reform movement is afoot in the integrative practice community. The present goal is as powerful as it is sublime: Tell Congress that, whatever healthcare reform efforts are undertaken, wellness must be included. The focal point of the current campaign is House Concurrent Resolution 406 (H.Con.Res.406) introduced by US Representative Jim Langevin (D-RI).  H.Con.Res.406 expresses “the sense of Congress that any effort to reengineer the health care system in the United States should incorporate sustainable wellness programs that address the underlying causal factors associated with chronic disease.” More ...

October 1, 2008

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Penny George: A Visionary for Integrative Practices
Allina Honors Integrative Medicine Visionary:  U.S.'s Top Hospital Program Becomes the Penny George Institute for Health & Healing

  Penny George, one of a handful of individuals who has had the most significant influence on the development of integrative medicine in the United States, was honored recently by Allina Health System. Allina announced that it will change the name of its leading edge, inpatient-outpatient integrative center to the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing. The September 26, 2008 Allina release only suggests the many strategic roles George has played in advancing this movement in US and global health care. George's story begins with a personal experience of breast cancer.  Her vision led to the formation of an influential academic consortium, development of a collaborative of philanthropists, sponsorship of an IOM summit, lift-off for a key international research conference, enhancement of multidisciplinary initiatives and, on the ground in the Allina system, 8000 outpatient and 14,500 inpatient integrative care visits a year.  More ... 






Issue #52 - September 26, 2008



September 26, 2008

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Join a multidisciplinary gathering of 1000+ February 19-21, New York City
Welcome Integrative Practitioner Online-Integrative Healthcare Symposium as an Integrator Sponsor!

 
Happy news, friends and colleague: Please join me in welcoming a new Integrator sponsor!  Integrative Practitioner Online is a growing, virtual community of 3700 healthcare professionals, some 1000 of whom will get together, face-to-face, at their affiliated Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City, February 19-21, 2009. The business model of this new Integrator sponsor is about building community. I have come to know and like their lead personnel. This promises to be a great new platform and playground for advancing the Integrator's own mission. Take a look at who they are and what we're planning. Got any ideas? More ...
 
 


September 26, 2008

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James Prochaska, PhD
Employers & Integrative Medicine: An Interview with Stages of Change/Readiness for Change Expert James Prochaska, PhD

 

The pioneering work of James Prochaska, PhD in "stages of change" and "readiness for change" is known to many in the integrative practice community. Changing behaviors is the heart of the best of integrative care. Employers are drawn to Prochaska's work because moving an employee toward change can eventually be monetized. Is this a place for an employer-integrative practice link? I think so. Prochaska will be a featured presenter and workshop leader at the October 15-17, 2008 conference of the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM), an Integrator sponsor. I look forward to the opportunity to introduce him to Richard Nahin, PhD, MD, senior adviser and acting director of extramural research for NIH NCCAM who will be a keynoter at the meeting. This interview explores Prochaska's work, potential clinical applications in complementary, alternative and integrative medicine research and practice, and the way the reductive research paradigm has hindered application of beneficial change strategies. More ...

September 22, 2008

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Commentator Michelle Clark, ND
MD Bashing, ND Bashing & Integration: Comments from King, Ballard, Sportelli, Amato, Clark, Glidden, Lee-Engel and Benda

 
If one cares about one's cultural competency for practice with practitioners from other disciplines, this set of comments is excellent, raw and eye-opening material for reflection. In a recent Integrator column, Bill Benda, MD asserted that "integrative medicine" will always be MD-centered. Then he responded to prior columns by Tom Ballard, ND and Peter Glidden, ND, strongly arguing that it was time to stop bashing medical doctors. These new comments - alternatively conciliatory, insightful, re-focusing, direct, congratulatory and inflammatory - are from naturopathic student leader Cheri King, 40+ year chiropractic practitioner and NCMIC president Lou Sportelli, DC, Inner Harmony Group founder Peter Amato, AANP board member Michelle Clark, ND, and Bastyr University educator and clinician Christy Lee-Engel, ND, LAc. Their contributions surround responses to Benda from Ballard and Glidden, each of whom felt Benda was engaging in his own bashing. I sent these to Benda prior to printing, who comments again. I conclude with some words from the poet Robert Graves. More ...
 

September 22, 2008

Does Hospital Care Need a Public Health Warning Label?

[From my Integrative Practitioner Online column} “ … We spend between one fifth and one third of our health care dollars … between five hundred billion and seven hundred billion dollars (and that’s a billion, with a b), on care that does nothing to improve our health. And while overhead and high prices hurt our pocketbooks, the vast amount of unnecessary care in the system also makes our health care worse than it ought to be.” The quote is from Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer, by by conventionally-minded journalist Shannon Brownlee. Notably, her horrendous estimate of harmful waste is $400-billion less than the Institute of Medicine's estimate. I have an idea for a warning label. More ...


September 21, 2008

NACCAM, NCCAM Advisory Council, regular meeting,
Notes from the Advisory Council's meeting
Sherman Cohn: Report on the NIH NCCAM Advisory Committee Meeting, September 12, 2008

 
 
Sherman Cohn, JD attended the September 12, 2008 meeting of the NIH National Advisory Council on Complementary and Alternative Medicine and sent me a report. His notes refer to a discussion of challenges in CAM research, programs to support careers of distinctly licensed professionals, a historic look at botanicals in medicine, a concept paper on CAM for pain, data from a 2007 consumer survey and some future directions. I figured some of you would be as interested as I was. Cohn, a professor of law at Georgetown University since 1965, a leader in the emergence of the acupuncture profession since the early 1980s, and a sometimes contributor to the Integrator, gave me an okay to share the report with you. Enjoy.  More ... 
 


September 19, 2008

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Ryma Bielkus anddaughters open Cape Cod practice
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: September 1-15, 2008

CCAOM backs move in the acupuncture profession toward "First Professional Doctorate" ... IAYT reports data on the emerging Yoga therapy field ... ND students set quality standards for nutraceutical partners ... Hopkins opens integrative clinic with GI focus ... Hawaii Consortium for Integrative Healthcare begins monthly television program ...  New ACOEM guidelines for chronic pain elevate role of acupuncture, yoga ...  Employer group IHPM begins worksite metabolic health initiative ... American Specialty Health receives awards ... Standard Process' president Charlie DuBois joins board of chiropractic research group ... Council for Responsible Nutrition selects naturopathic physician Douglas MacKay, ND as vice president for regulatory and scientific affairs ... Changes at the top for American Association for Health Freedom ... Primary care needs to be aggravated by disappearing interest among med school grads, plus more







Issue #51 - September 15, 2008



September 9, 2008

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Rosanne Harrigan, PhD - Hawaii IM leader announces new clinical services
Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: August 16-31, 2008

Data on total number of AOM students ... Hawaii med school opens complementary medicine center ... Ralph Snyderman, MD, a top influencer of medical school-based integrative medicine, tells academic medicine to "lead, follow or get out of the way" of what he calls "prospective health care" ... Bradly Jacobs, MD, MPH leaves a Revolution on the decline ... Physician staffing firm reports survey on MD views of CAM ... Delaware gets medical association's support in successful licensing campaign ... AHPA firms look good in JAMA study ... Integrative Medical Consortium formed of half-dozen other national professional associations ... Yoga leader Terri Kennedy selected for American Heart Association role ... Integrative program for the disabled seeks information on other models ... plus more  More ...

September 7, 2008

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Bill Benda, MD - board member for both AANP and AHMA
Columnist Bill Benda, MD: Tough Love on Who Owns "Integrative Medicine" and on Associated "MD-Bashing"

 
 
Bill Benda, MD, weighs in forcefully on the recent series of Integrator articles, guest columns and commentaries on who owns the term "integrative medicine" and some of the attendant name-calling. It's been a little ugly, seeing the disparate perceptions, hurt feelings and psycho-spiritual-economic rifts between the diverse parties with a stake in the integrative practice movement. Benda focuses on two points he feels must be made, once and for all, regarding "allopathically-centered integrative medicine" and the need to end "MD bashing" by naturopathic doctors and other complementary healthcare practitioners. Benda's addition to this difficult exchange reminded me of what may be the best therapeutic course for those wishing to take this healing seriously: the knowledge, skills and values in the 1994 Pew-Fetzer Task Force work on practitioner-to-practitioner relationships. 
 
 More ...
 


September 4, 2008

access to acupuncture, CAM, integrative medicine, affordable
Working Class Acupuncture
Update on a "Social Business" Model: The Working Class Acupuncture Clinic Had 448 Patient Visits Last Week

 
 
One of the Integrator's Top 10 for integrative practice for 2006 was Working Class Acupuncture. The Portland, Oregon-based business, controversial in the acupuncture community, promotes greater access to affordable acupuncture services through a business model in which acupuncture is delivered in a community room. Patients average $19 per visit. Now just 3-years-old, the clinic, which anchors a national network, had 448 patient visits in the final week of August 2008. Visits for the month were at over 1600, up 33% from the prior year, and quite likely the highest number of any acupuncture clinics in the United States. Co-founder Lisa Rohleder, LAc shares data on visits, salaries and expansion of this for-profit model which, on reading the work of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, is a classic "social business." More ...
 


September 1, 2008

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Origins #2: Peter D'Adamo, ND on the Musical Inspiration for "Integrative Medicine" in 1979

  Internationally-known Eat Right 4 Your Type author Peter D'Adamo, ND recalls using the term "integrative medicine" in 1979. D'Adamo was part of a team which was charged with developing the clinical education strategy at John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine, founded the year before. D'Adamo, a musician and composer, recalls how the concept, which became embedded in the naturopathic curriculum as "integrative therapeutics," was shaped by some musical concepts with which he was working. The story recalls to mind conversations two decades later with Tracy Gaudet, MD, when she and her team who founded the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona sought to get their academic minds around what "integrative medicine" was, and then how to teach it. More ...


August 31, 2008

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Martin Rossman, MD
Origins #1:  Marty Rossman, MD Expands on the Shared History of the Integrative Practice Movement

 

 
Guided imagery pioneer Martin Rossman, MD, LAc, read my column, "Toward an Integrated History for the Integrative Practice Movement." The focus on the founding of organizations left some key "elements" that needed to be in the mix. Rossman speaks of the era, the "crack in our (medical) cosmic egg." He lists some who were key articulators of the new humanism and holism. There are tastes here of the contribution of the moment and the greatness of breakthrough thinker which add to that of the road-builders whose often nearly invisible acts advanced access for millions of people to kinds of care which manifested the ideas articulated by these who Rossman honors. More ...
 


 


For earlier articles, please click below:

Issues #47-#50 - July-August 2008

Issues #45 & -#46 - May-June 2008

Issues #43-#45 Mar-April 2008


Issues #41 & #42 - Feb 2008

Issues #39 & #40 - Dec-Jan '08


Issues #37 & #38 - Nov 2007

Issues #35 & #36 - Oct 2007

Issues #33 & #34 - Sept 2007

Issues #30-#32 - July-Aug 2007

Issues #28 & #29 - June 2007

Issues #26 and #27 - May 2007

Issue #25 - April 2007

Issues # 23 & #24 - March 2007

Issues #21 and #22 - Feb 2007

Issues #19 and & 20 - Jan 2007

Issues #17 and #18 - Dec 2006

Issues #15 and #16 - Nov 2006

Issues #13 and #14 - Oct 2006

Issues #11 and #12- Sept 2006

Issues #9 and #10 - Aug 2006

Issues #7 and #8 - July 2006

Issues #5 and #6 - June 2006

Issues #3 and #4 - May 2006

Issues #1 and #2 - Apr 2006

All Postings to Aug 15, by Subject Matter

IAYT-Sponsored Series on the Future of Yoga Therapy

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All Articles by Subject: 2006
All Articles by Subject: Jan-June 2007
Issues #51-#54 - Sept-Oct 2008
Issues #47-#50 - July-August 2008
Issues #46 & -#47 - May-June 2008
Issues #43-#45 Mar-April 2008
Issues #41 & #42 - Feb 2008
Issues #39 & #40 - Dec-Jan '08
Issues #37 & #38 - Nov 2007
Issues #35 & #36 - Oct 2007
Issues #33 & #34 - Sept 2007
Issues #30-#32 - July-Aug 2007
Issues #28 & #29 - June 2007
Issues #26 and #27 - May 2007
Issue #25 - April 2007
Issues # 23 & #24 - March 2007
Issues #21 and #22 - Feb 2007
Issues #19 and & 20 - Jan 2007
Issues #17 and #18 - Dec 2006
Issues #15 and #16 - Nov 2006
Issues #13 and #14 - Oct 2006
Issues #11 and #12- Sept 2006
Issues #9 and #10 - Aug 2006
Issues #7 and #8 - July 2006
Issues #5 and #6 - June 2006
Issues #3 and #4 - May 2006
Issues #1 and #2 - April 2006
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