That alternative medicine is a consumer movement is well known.
Less known or appreciated is how a powerful group of mainly female consumers - the Bravewell Collaborative -- shaped
the movement to implant these alternatives into conventional treatment.
These consumers partnered with medical doctors to promote the movement
in academic medicine and health systems called "integrative medicine."
This blog traces their strategic work at the time of their announced
departure from the scene. Their hand-prints are all over integrative medicine's transformational work in the ensuing 14 years. This column was first published at the Huffington Post as
Honoring How Powerful Consumers Known as Bravewell Implanted Integrative Medicine in the System.
To engage the dialogue, comment, re-post, please go to Huffington Post piece.
Policy -President's Planning Budget for VHA focuses on "Whole Health" for
2016-2021 -Side-note: Veteran's clinician in Washington state seeks to connect with others working to advance integrative programs in the VHA -Coalition for Patients Rights joins chorus of practitioner organizations against maintaining discrimination in health care -Following Washington GMO vote, Herbal Products Association calls for federal standard on voluntary disclosure -Herbalgram looks at Obamacare's impact on those with Health Savings Accounts
-Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth issues report on naturopathic doctors as primary care providers Insurance & Payment -Aetna CEO Bertolini goes to bat for yoga, acupuncture, naturopathic doctors, yoga and other integrative practices -Chiropractic policy leader Gerry Clum, DC lays out perspectives on chiropractic payment under the Affordable Care Act -Major Hawaii insurer opens to naturopathic doctors and other licensed "CAM" practitioners Hospitals and Health Systems
-Herb organization enters into Children's Hospital of Philadelphia dispute over banning supplements Organizations -ABIHM to morph into international, multidisciplinary certification and political advocacy organization -Global Spa and Wellness Summit keynoted by the Dalai Lama with Kenneth Pelletier moderating -International Association of Yoga Therapists, American Botanical Council and Pacific Symposium hit 25 year marks -Canadian Massage Therapy Research Fund invites submissions for $40,000 in grant awards Academic Medicine
-University of Toronto integrative medicine program accepted into Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine -Study reports barriers to incorporation of CAM into family medicine residencies -Accreditation group for homeopathy opens comment period for doctoral program standards -Midwifery Education Accreditation Council opens new website People
Nurse-researcher Mary Jo Kreitzer honored with Consortium's Bravewell Distinguished Service AwardMore
[This column was originally published here at Integrative Practitioner Online.] The documentary Escape Fire: The
Fight to Rescue American Healthcare debuted on CNN in March of 2013 to
great fanfare from the integrative health and medicine community. Here, finally, in this Sundance Films-backed project was a
documentary with significant mainstream penetration that talked our talk. Integrative medicine icons
Andy Weil, Dean Ornish and Wayne Jonas took the camera to articulate the
transformation in our conversation about health. They were relied upon for
emerging strategies. But with nearly our entire economy continuously at war with those
who would create a system of health, we need a sequel that is something
more like this: Escape Fire: A War Strategy to Give Health a Chance.
Policy -U.S. Senate offers powerful, supportive statements on naturopathic medicine in declaration of "Naturopathic Medicine Week" -State of Oregon Health Authority creates "Integrative Medical Advisory Group" -The Physicians Foundation reports (positively) on MD-medicine's scope campaigns against other disciplines Charting the Mainstream -Study puts annual deaths from regular medicine at 210,000-440,000 - the nation's 3rd largest killer Organizations -National, multidisciplinary certification group for health coaches gains not-for-profit status -Boston Medical Center group receives $1.6-million PCORI grant to explore group-delivered integrative medical services -National Center for Homeopathy "re-booting" under new executive director Natural Products -Council for Responsible Nutrition report estimates billions saved via appropriate use of dietary supplements -Israelson's UNPA and Bland's PLM link for exploration of dietary supplement-personalized medicine opportunities Professions
-AAAOM declares ambitious plan for 5 pieces of federal legislation -American Chiropractic Association House of Delegates focuses on guidelines, evidence -Naturopathic doctors face regulatory challenges over prescription rights in Vermont, Alaska -American Holistic Nurses plans cruise to explore the "evolution of integrative health and holistic nursing" Perspectives -Calling the Question: Is
battle over non-discrimination in health care (Section 2706) rightfully
spoken in the same breath as battles for people of color and women? -Update from Dana Ullman: Indian Institute of Technology
delivers compelling evidence for homeopathy/nanomedicine Awards
-Integrative pediatrician Sunita Vorha, MD awarded 2013 $250,000 Dr. Rogers' Prize -Integrative researcher-clinician Dugald Seely, ND chosen one of Ottawa's Top 25 People People
-Horace Elliott to step down after 27 years with the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners -Disease Proof: new book from Yale integrative and preventive medicine leader David Katz, MD, MPH -American Chiropractic Association selects James Potter as new CEOMore
The Congressional action was symbolic. Detractors might call it a classic political act of tossing them a bone. After all, what actual value is there in the U.S. Senate declaration of October 7-13, 2013 as "Naturopathic Medicine Week"?Yet
until this month no Congressional act directly and explicitly
acknowledged the existence of the naturopathic medical profession. Now here comes U.S. Senate Resolution 221,
passed September 10, 2013, declaring that naturopathic medicine is
"safe, effective and affordable health care." Though the field is
regulated in just 16 jurisdictions, S.R 221 declares that "naturopathic
physicians can help address the shortage of primary care providers."
U.S. citizens are encouraged "to learn about the role of naturopathic
physicians in preventing chronic and debilitating conditions."More This column was first published here at Integrative Practitoner Online.
-PARCA coalition sends letter to oppose
removal of "non-discrimination" clause from the Affordable Care Act
-Integrative MD leader Delia
Chiaramonte in key role in Maryland win for chiropractors on manipulating
children -Getting into the Nation's team-care
movement: HRSA-funded Center
opens website and invites participation Publications
-NCCAM's Briggs calls for "more
nuanced" conversation about complementary and integrative medicine in JAMA
editorial -American Journal of Medicine features positive review of integrative
medicine from Sierpina and Dalen Academic Health and Medicine
-Chiropractor Joe Brimhall, DC, elected to chair the Northwest Commission on
Colleges and Universities
-Incoming Parker University president
Brian McAulay, PhD turns the ritual of investiture into a dedication to
community service Business and Economics -American Specialty Health to move
corporate headquarters to Indiana -Former Alliance for Natural Health
chair Sherri Tenpenny, DO in critical position at work with Fortune 250 firm
Parker-Hannifin
-Standard Process in new engagement
with the acupuncture and Oriental medicine community -Sabin on Steps to Negotiating
Integrative Medicine in Institutional Settings Organizations
-Bravewell Collaborative extends its
sun-setting to 2015, declares legacy projects
-Society for Integrative Oncology
publishes paper on integrating top10 supplements into cancer care
-Massage Therapy Foundation publishes
free e-book on pediatric massage Professions
-American Massage Therapy Association
explains its watch-and-see role toward non-discrimination/Section 2706
-Naturopathic professional organization
sponsors "Naturopathic Medicine Week," October 7-13, 2013
-Cochrane review paper boosts care from
midwives: happier Moms, fewer adverse effects Creating Health and Health Coaching
-Mayo Clinic innovation leader speak of
"creating health" as medicine's goal
-Health coaching the subject of
exceptional series in Global Advances in Health and Medicine
-Role of integrative nurses in health
coaching featured People
-Jeffrey Feldman, PhD the new director
of the Wake Forest Baptist Health Center for Integrative Medicine
-Award-winning film producer Kevin
Miller seeking crowd sourcing to complete Letters from Generation RX -Georgetown's Hakima Amri, Marc
Miccozi and Mones Abu-Asab team for translation of 1000 year-old Avicenna's
Medicine
-Integrator publisher-editor John Weeks' commencement
talk to integrative health and medicine graduatesMore
[This talk was first published here at the Huffington Post.] The following is a commencement address I was honored to deliver on Aug.
3, 2013. My audience was the graduates of the programs of Doctor of Chiropractic,
Master of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and Master of Applied Clinical
Nutrition at New York Chiropractic College/Finger Lakes School of Acupuncture
and Oriental Medicine. The NYCC press release on the ceremony stimulated some requests to
read the talk and in turn the suggestion that I make it more broadly available.
I hope you find it of interest. More
September 2, 2013
[This column was first published here at IntegrativePractitioner.com.] Chiropractic doctors have always been a limbo profession. They
have more recognition and inclusion in health policy and third-party
payment than any of the other so-called "complementary and alternative
medicine" professions with which they are sometimes lumped. Yet they
have struggled mightily, internally, for years, with self-esteem and
what they call "cultural authority." Evidence is afoot that a new era of recognition for doctors of chiropractic is dawning. In
July 2013, the chiropractic profession hit a trifecta. The American
Chiropractic Association, a persistent lobbying force in the nation's
Beltway, successfully inserted a plan
to expand their program with the Veterans Administration into an
omnibus bill. The strategy creates a good chance of the legislation's
passage. More
[This article was first published here in the Huffington Post.] A battle inside Congress and the Executive branch over the right
of patients to choose care from the types of practitioners they prefer
is erupting inside the Beltway. At stake is the meaning and potential revocation of "non-discrimination in health care," Section 2706 of the Affordable Care Act. The requirement is due to become law in January 2014. Congress and the Executive, in the form of the US Health and Human
Services, are sparring over congressional intent. Now seven medical
specialties have backed H.R. 2817 to entirely gut the non-discrimination section. A key dimension to Section 2706 is patient access to covered services
from licensed doctors of chiropractic, practitioners of acupuncture and
Oriental medicine, naturopathic physicians, massage therapists, and to
home births via non-nurse, certified professional midwives. More
Policy -Harkin pushes back on HHS for broader interpretation of "non-discrimination in healthcare" (Section 2706) -IHPC posts briefing by former Washington insurance commissioner Deborah Senn on Section 2706 (non-discrimination in healthcare) -Kaiser Health News feature on Obamacare and alternative medicine stirs significant media interest -Chiropractors announce positive steps toward VA residency, expansion of VA services, and an opening with Medicare Integrative Practice -From Google Alerts: Links to Integrative Medicine in Health Systems and Communities from July 2013 Economics and Business
-Dean Ornish, MD links with Healthways to promote his pioneering integrative heart health program
-Health creation? Former CEO of Henry Ford Hospital takes over as CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America
-RAND group reports "considerations" from expert panel on economic
analysis of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine -Medical tourism in Portland, Oregon? Tribune says "Global patients, wellness tourists seek out city's naturopaths" Academics
-Chiropractic accrediting agency calls for public comments on residency standards
-CAHCIM announces Patty Wilder as new executive director, replacing Janet Polli Research -Bravenet's outcomes on prospective study on integrative pain treatment
-NIH NCCAM announces David Shurtleff, PhD as new deputy director Professions
-National association for AOM announces goals in $3-million drive to support 2013-2016 strategic plan
-Naturopathic physicians' association announced new PR message: Natural Medicine. Real Solutions Natural Products
-United Natural Products Alliance reaches out to practitioner groups as partner organizations
-AHPA publishes second edition of Botanical Safety Handbook online People
-Integrative doctor Melinda Ring, MD selected one of Chicago's 100 most influential women -Health freedom warrior Clinton Miller dies at 91
-AANP announces 2013 awards: Clark, Gazella, Anderson, Brinkman, Marinelli, Ayush Herbs -Ethnobotanist Rosita Arvigo, DN lectures for the American Holistic Medical Association
I was recently part of a
discussion breakout at an Institute of Medicine (IOM) meeting in which we explored
the patient roles in transforming care. As talk turned to empowering patients, I shared something I have done three times in recent years when
consulting with specialists on an eye issue related to a basketball injury from
20 years ago. Treatment choices for my eye lie within a semi-elective grey-zone
relative to potential surgery. My professional life had taught the horror of the IOM declaring that 30%-50% of what is done in medicine is waste, and much of it harmful. How is one to reflect that when faced with a practitioner who one may in fact like? [This column was originally published as a hard copy column in Alternative Medicine magazine. A web version on the magazine's site is here.
Tracy Gaudet, MD has spoken of the critical role of MDs/DOs as integrative medicine leaders in health system change. An international panel recently concluded that the key focus of all health professions academics is to graduate professionals via "transformative" education to create "leaders" who are "change agents." A key transformation is from guild focus to team care, from professionalism to inrerprofessionalism. Will the new Board Certification in Integrative Medicine create via this new specialty of MDs and DOs leaders for this new era urged by The Lancet?This column was first published here at IntegrativePractitioner.com. More
This
monthly report includes 17 segments from Google Alerts on integrative medicine
developments in health systems plus 12 from the community for July 6,
2013-July 28, 2013. These came via requests for "integrative
medicine," "integrative oncology," "alternative medicine" and "complementary and alternative
medicine." The most significant media pick-up during the month was the Kaiser Health News feature, although the focus was on the favorable "alternative medicine" rather than "integrative medicine." Here is the MedPage link, WebMD and here the Denver Post, for instance. The Bravenet publication based on a study of integrative pain was also widely picked-up (see here and here and here, for instance.) Meantime, Paul Offit, MD's anti-CAIM book continues to pick up significant media, including this in the Washington Post and this rejoinder in the LA Times from the Council for Responsible Nutrition. Highest
level of links yet from practitioners of integrative medicine in the
community. Notably the IM links include naturopathic doctors and
practitioners of acupuncture and Oriental medicine.
\
July 23, 2013
Policy
-Advisory Group on Prevention urges Surgeon General to issue guidance to states on non-discrimination (2706)
-Georgetown University group's Affordable Care Act implementation check list notes 2706, non-discrimination
-Integrative health academic consortium injects health and well-being into Institute of Medicine workshop
-Senator Harkin as pitch man for the naturopathic medical profession
-Obama administration issues rules on employment-based wellness; are employers hand-cuffed? Research & Publications
-Iris Bell, MD leads team in JAMA Internal Medicine publication on systems outcomes in integrative medicine -NCI calls for submissions on the role of integrative medicine in cancer survivorship Integrative Practice -From Google Alerts: Links to Integrative Medicine in Health Systems and Communities for July 2013
-Second major pain group creates focus on integrative pain strategies
-Update: Role of Arya Nielsen, PhD, LAc in the Joint Commission's interest in non-pharmacological approaches Academic Medicine -UCLAArts and Healing to offer Social Emotional Arts Certificate Program Professions -Washington State massage team publishes paper on massage in Essential Health Benefits
-Hassles of midwifery customers in getting care covered featured in New York Times -Naturopathic doctors move into key roles in medical homes in Oregon
-Foundation for Chiropractic Progress continues to gather strength as chiropractic visibility group Natural Products
-Cancer Treatment Centers of America reports outcomes of quality examination of dietary supplement suppliers Conferences -Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine hosts National Student Conference in Integrative Medicine, October 26-27 -Integrative Medicine for the Underserved offers 3rd annual conference in Santa Clara -International Research Congress for Integrative Medicine and Health now accepting session proposalsDr. -Rogers' Prize names Irving Kirsch, MD as keynote speaker for September 26, 2013 Gala Award Dinner People
-Michael Smith, PharmD, ND joins Samueli Institute team as Senior Fellow -Integrative medicine researcher Heather Boon, PhD appointed interim dean in Toronto pharmacy department -Joe Stiefel, MS, EdD, DC selected a 6th president of National University of Health Sciences
This column was first posted here at Integrative Practitioner Online.
The TEDMED franchise, owned by billionaire Priceline founder, Jay
Walker, favors the kind of high-tech solutions that have attracted
capital to medicine in such billions over the last 60 years. One such presenter at the April 2013 TEDMED at the Lincoln Center was Jonathan Bush.
Bush, whose uncle is George W. Bush, is the founder and chair of
fast-growing electronic health records company athenahealth. Bush's talk
rhetorically asked: "Is it fair to profit from healthcare?" He
responded affirmatively. In a follow-up Q&A with Walker,
Bush chastised government for suppressing entrepreneurs. Walker: "Where
does the revolution comes from? It doesn't come from within the medical
community. It's got to come from the customers - call them patients."
Bush responded: "My sense is that all of this needs some exogenous
factor to get the ball rolling." Bush's comment brought to mind a recent example of such exogenous input making a
difference. This was, however, from an emerging part of the medical
community that sees itself as exponents of a patient-centered movement ...
This
monthly report includes 28 segments from Google Alerts on integrative medicine
developments in health systems plus 16 from the community for June 1,
2013-July 6, 2013. These came via requests for "integrative
medicine," "integrative oncology," "alternative medicine" and "complementary and alternative
medicine." A lot of negative media play this month from Paul Offit, MD's book Do You Believe in Magic? Highest
level of links yet from practitioners of integrative medicine in the
community. Notably the IM links include naturopathic doctors and
practitioners of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. More
