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background resources in PDF |
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some CAM/IM publication links |
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Issues #5 and #6 - June 2006 |
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Written by John Weeks
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June 6, 2006 mailing - Issue #5
While promoting an insurance mandate to cover services of naturopathic physicians in his state of Vermont, Bernie Noe, ND, found the Vermont Automobile Dealers Association
in opposition, fearing cost increases. Noe engaged the executive
director in dialogue, ended up with a contract to develop and manage an
employee wellness program for the 100 member businesses who participate
in an insurance trust. Eighteen months later, Vermont Governor James Douglas
handed VADA its Gold Award for worksite wellness and Noe found himself
with a chance to work on his passion - proving that naturopathic
services will be cost saving to employers ...
The integration focus on
the MD-CAM axis often diminishes the importance of developing stronger
educational programs on CAM-IM in the allied health schools. Professor Larry Gant, PhD, part of a multi-disciplinary team at the University of Michigan, describes the plans his School of Social Work has for a unique certificate program in Integral Health Studies
which Gant hopes will later have a broader allied health home. One
possible outcome of such better education -- allied health
professionals may see that they are "allied" with the CAM-IM
disciplines in having to fight for respect in the broader system ..
A new program to more deeply integrate massage into the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center provides a look into the direction a conventional system is taking with the CAM service found by AHA/Health Forum
to be most highly integrated into hospital care. But are we beginning
yet to appreciate massage's ultimate role in a system which is
beginning to combat medically-caused deaths through promoting
"patient-centered" practices ...?
June 2, 2006
A
federal act, S 1955, was introduced to give small employers relief. But
it threatened to tear apart a fabric of integration into the insurance
game hard-won by allied health and CAM disciplines - and often opposed
by the AMA and its affiliates. Virtually every allied health and CAM-IM profession has depended on state mandates to stake a claim to coverage, through state mandates. The coalition of organizations against S 1955 exposed a shared political problem with the AMA
and virtually all of its state and specialty affiliates. What does
"allied health" mean if your so-called "allies" are conspicuously
absent from supporting your right to get paid?
AMTA releases data on hospital use of massage, 50th birthday of the modern naturopathic medical profession's mothership, National College of Naturopathic Medicine, patient and revenue data from the IM program in Eugene's Samaritan Health System and more ...
May 30, 2006
The North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine
attracted 650+ participants to Edmonton, Alberta, May 24-27, to view
over 300 presentions and posters - and to engage in new levels of
multi-disciplinary exchange. "Inspiring" was the consensus view, though
the challenges remain profound. Meantime, the executive committees of
the conference sponsor, the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, and of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care held a historic reception, and shared their intention for more collaboration in the future.
June 24, 2006 mailing - Issue #6
.jpg "Image") Mayo's Brent Bauer, MD
One way to take the
measure of CAM-IM integration is to see the shape it is taking in a
internationally-respected bastion of conservative medicine. Brent Bauer, MD, IM leader at the Mayo Clinic describes a surprisingly robust program, and the strategy that is producing it ...
June 22, 2006
Studies showing that medical care is at least the 3rd most significant cause of death in the United States prompted Donald Berwick, MD, of the Boston-based Institute for Health Improvement
to enroll as many hospitals as he could in 100,000 Lives campaign. The
focus of the campaign was on pushing a half dozen key guidelines. On
June 14, Berwick announced that the campaign has more than met its
18-month goals. A phase two will be announced later this year. Milt Hammerly, MD,
long time integrative medicine leader and a vice president for
operations for a 19-state system which participated in the IHI
camapign, comments ...
 June 21, 2006
The sleeping giant of US health care, the American Nurses Association, has awakened to take the lead in a 25 member (and growing) coalition of organizations actively opposing the AMA's Scope of Practice Partnership which was created last fall to limit practice rights of other disciplines. The Coalition for Patient Rights,
while calling for cooperation, has taken off the gloves, and is
questioning the unlimited scope of MDs. This second recent coalition of
allied health and CAM professions against a common enemy - following
the successful battle against S 1955 - suggests maybe its time
for this such a coalition to begin thinking proactively. Meantime, will
other CAM-IM disciplines join the effort ... ?
June 16, 2006
I found myself reflecting all week on a medical murder given brief note in the May 27, 2006 Business Week.
Only the murder was not of a patient. This was an entire agency which
was established, among other reasons, to save lives. But when the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, charged to bring US medicine into evidence-based practice, began to turn out guidelines which supported chiropractic and questioned back surgery, the agency was, effectively, killed. Was it a lone gunman/surgeon? Or could it be that the American Medical Association and its allies could not take it's own (evidence-based) medicine ...?
 Bernie Noe, ND, wellness plan developer
June 14, 2006
A
long-standing rift between two national associations which principally
represent licensed acupuncturists may be taking a huge step toward
healing. Board representatives of the Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and the Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance
plan to meet to discuss shared projects in August. All of us with a
stake in integrated care should be rooting for these two groups to find
ways to put their divisions behind them and focus their limited
resources on the best work to advance the role of acupuncture and
Oriental medicine in the emerging healthcare system ...
June 11, 2006
The
evidence of the lack of evidence in conventional medicine - some
20%-25% is evidence-based - is hardly new. What is most powerful about
this Business Week feature (May 29, 2006) is the strength of the case that yes, we do have EBM, but EBM stands for Economics Based Medicine. Business Week
shows us evidence disregarded and a federal agency killed to protect
lucrative, harmful practices. One minor take home: It's time to end the
polarizing presentation of EBM versus no evidence in the CAM-IM
integration dialogue once and for all.
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