Taylor Walsh Consultant, Entrepreneur and Writer on Digital Media & Integrative Health
Washington, D.C. Integrative
Health & Wellness Strategies Twitter: @taylorw Taylor Walsh is a formeronline service entrepreneur and
pioneer in social media who presently consultsand writes in the integrative health and digital media space. Based in Washington, D.C., Walsh combines two passions that are of immense benefit to Integrator readers. He sees the importance of transformation of our medical system and the value of integrative practice philosophies and model in that process. In addition, Walsh has a good old-fashioned passion for Beltway politics. His coverage of developments at the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and in the rapid rise of comparative effectiveness research (CER) have proved particularly useful. Here is the assemblage of his commentary and columns.
The proposed re-naming of the NIH National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine is a powerful cultural moment for the field.
In this article, Integrator columnist and integrative health and
medicine consultant Taylor Walsh documents the dialogue on the topic at
the June 2014 meeting of the - what may soon also be renamed - National
Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Here are
views of Josephine Briggs, MD, Brian Berman, MD, Tracy Gaudet, MD, Scott
Haldeman., MD, DC, Dan Cherkin, PhD, and others. Fine job from Walsh.
The Integrator comments touch on: the limits of the dialogue
since the non-MD "CAM" profession representation has been reduced to 6%
of those on the Council; whether "integrative" is a term most
recognizable to consumers; and whether "erasing the conflicts" that may
come when "complementary" or (heaven forbid) "alternative" is in the
title may also be airbrushing our history.
December 7, 2013
Numerous whole person, integrative
medicine and health professions view
themselves as primary care. Millions of human beings turn to these
practitioners as their primary providers of care when some things is
disturbing them. Clearly. Yet in a series of organized
activitiesin November 2013 from Health Affairs and the
American Association of Medical Colleges recently devoted themselves to
the topic, these disciplines were essentially absent from the
discussion. Integrator columnist and integrative medicine and health
consultant Taylor Walsh attending the Washington, D.C. briefing on the topic from the two entities. This is his report.
Integrator adviser and columnist Taylor Walsh was a guest at a daylong training to help leaders in integrative health disciplines become better ambassadors forintegrative health to the mainstream community. The training was developed by the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC). Walsh subsequent reflected on ACCAHC's work and published a piece entitled"Multiple Paths to Patient-Directed Health Care Transformation" in the mainstream Altarum Institute Health Policy Forum.Walsh approved my re-posting it here.
A draft plan is on the books for a major research
initiative that many in the integrative practice community believe is
potentially more aligned with whole system integrative approaches. The
initiative is the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Integrator
adviser Taylor Walsh, an integrative medicine policy wonk, has
been
tracking this movement since it broke as "comparative effectiveness
research." Walsh filed this excellently written report after PCORI's
day-long hearing on its draft plan and a PCORI Board of Governors
meeting
on which he listed in. I conclude with some possible talking point for
your response to the plan as gained through dialogue with colleagues. Click in here and be heard.
When Integrator columnist Taylor Walsh spotted the Atlantic Monthly feature by David Freedman, The Triumph of New Age Medicine,
he recognized what is certain to be an influential contribution to the
nation's debate over medical alternatives. Walsh culls exceptional
quotes from Freedman and his subjects on a ride that enters what Walsh
calls the Quackadarium and includes Mayo Clinic's integrative
care and Brian Berman's center at U Maryland. This Cliff's Notes version
of an exceptional article will drive you to read the original.
How "integrative health
care" and "integrative health" are understood by the U.S. government is
partly in the hands of Jeff Levy. So is understanding of these terms
relative to application for Community Transformation Grants. Levy, executive
director of the Trust for America's Health, chairs the Advisory Group to
the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council.
The Group has a subcommittee working on definitions on integrative
health. This group is supporting development of the National Prevention
and Public Health Plan to be released by June 30, 2011. Integrator writer
Taylor Walsh met with Levy and asked him about integrative health care.
The next Advisory Group meeting, available via WebEx software, is
scheduled for May 24, 2011. April 4, 2011
Beltway-based Integrator
columnist Taylor Walsh specializes in examining policy changes with an
eye on their potential meaning to integrative medicine and health care.
In this column, Walsh offers a useful summary of a rash of developments
as the National Prevention (and Public Health) Strategy begins to
unfold. "Integrative health care" is a new concept right up front in the
law behind this $16.5-billion effort. Are there explicit initiatives
laid out in these plans? Walsh points to where there may be opportunity. More
The publication by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation of "Workplace Clinics, A Sign of Growing
Employer Interest in Wellness" provided Integrator contributor
Taylor Walsh with an opportunity to check in on where this employer
movement is crossing over into integrative practices, and to suggest
places where the integrative practice movement might connect. Walsh, a
Washington, DC-based consultant, entrepreneur and writer, points to a
number of potential seams of gold. Anyone capitalized to go mining? More
The
advancing comparative effectiveness research (CER) agenda of the Obama
era has been linked to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
since the IOM weighed in on the topic in June 2009. The health reform
law specifically included integrative practices and practitioners in CER
planning and an integrative care researcher was appointed to panel
leading what will be a multi-billion dollar national initiative. Most
recently, the NIH NCCAM cites CER interest as a prime mover toward "real
world research." The Integrator has followed the evolving
story, in part through the fine reporting Beltway-based reporter Taylor
Walsh. Here is Walsh's report on the "National Leadership Summit on CER Priorities, Methods and Policy: Transforming
Oncology through Comparative Effectiveness Research." Walsh reports the patient-involved strategies for CER. He also reflects on CER's origins, and the recent work from Stanford's John Iioannidis, MD, DSc that
suggests flaws in 90% of the research medical research informing
medical education and clinical opinion. (Unfortunately, the integrative
practice community did not seem to be present at this summit.)
Credit the
current NCCAM administration for fostering a spirit of open dialogue and
give-and-take in its National Advisory Council. Washington DC-based
writer Taylor Walsh captures some of the bandying of ideas and
differences of opinion exceptionally well in this report on the
September 3, 2010 meeting of the NIH National Advisory Council on
Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The
subject could not be more important: the proposed Strategic Plan that
is to guide some $650-million of NCCAM spending. Walsh focuses on the
segment of the meeting in which Strategic Objective #3 ("real world
research" and health-enhancing outcomes) was discussed. What will we have an opportunity to learn about the potential contributions of integrative practices? Walsh, a regular Integrator
contributor, captures perspectives of advisers Steve DeKosky, Tim
Birdsall, Adam Burke, Janet Kahn, Gary Curhan and Gert Bronfort, as well
as those of NCCAM staff, in this well-written report on a critically
important meeting.
The
strategic plan for NIH National Center
for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine showed steps toward clarification at the February 5, 2010 meeting of the National Advisory
Council. This report from Integrator
columnist Taylor Walsh share's the agency's directions, plus a list of
the 5 new
appointees. The range of initiatives is wide, from reductive approaches
to products to engaging lifestyle-change initiatives and mind-body
interventions. Council member Janet Kahn, PhD reviewed Walsh's article
and offers additional perspectives on the direction. Kahn calls to the
practitioner community that is interested in "real world research" to
utilize NCCAM's existing health services research initiative.
The annual publication of an Integrator
Top 10 list always leaves room for reader submissions of their
recommendations. This year brought some excellent suggestions, for both
Top 10 Actions and Events and the first time, Top 10 People. From the responses, we have proved
that we are well integrated into popular culture: the People list
stimulated more responses. Here are the Integrator reader nominations from 2009. Included is Taylor Walsh's list "Top Health Trends That Need IM/IH Involvement."
This
is an auspicious moment for evaluating integrative practices. The
Obama-empowered comparative effectiveness research (CER) movement
focuses attention on practical evaluations “to
assist consumers, clinicians, purchasers, and policy
makers to make informed decisions that will improve health care at both
the
individual and population levels.” Meantime, the new NCCAM strategic
plan, if it follows Congress' mandate, will march to a similar drummer.
Into this vortex steps the Institute for Integrative Health and the Center for Medical
Technology Policy, led by leading
NCCAM-funded researcher Brian Berman, MD and former CMWS medical
director Sean Tunis, MD, respectively, to convene top scientists in
CAM/IM, CER researchers and government agencies to explore the
effectiveness ground. Berman calls the gathering the beginning of a process "to make evidence much more relevant, and getting to the
essence of the clinical encounter.” The group will create an "Effectiveness Guidance Document" to aid IM/CAM researchers in CER study design. Taylor Walsh, a participant, files this report on the November 9, 2009 symposium.
Andrew Weil, MD offers 7 point action plan on health
reform, community responds ... IOM report on Summit due out in November
... 47 members of Congress send letter backing non-discrimination among
provider categories ... Academic Medicine article blasts R-25
integrative medicine programs in medical schools, U Minnesota responds
... Shifting landscape for massage educational organizations ... Group
to issue educational standards for Yoga therapists ... NCCAM distributes
portion of its Obama stimulus funds ... Beth Clay on controversy over
trial of Gonzalez' integrative pancreatic cancer treatment ... FCER, the
former spearhead for chiropractic research, ends 60 years of visionary
action ... Women legislators back anti-discrimination approach toward
licensed acupuncturists ... Blue Cross Blue Shield federal employees
program continues to list chiropractic doctors as physicians ...
Holistic nursing certification agency marks upbeat in interest ...
Employer's story shows how prejudice may restrict appropriate use of
workplace massage as cost-saver ... Review paper of cost-related studies
of acupuncture ... Economist Herman clarifies how she selected studies
used in her reported presentation on areas for cost-savings from CAM ...
Members in Bravewell Collaborative show some change since 2007 ...
Ricki and Gunn big winners with $250,000 Dr. Rogers' Prize in
complementary medicine ... Taylor Walsh shares his list of integrative
medicine tweeters ... Unique Hawaii Consortium for Integrative Health
Care selects Wong as exec ... Dana Ullman, MPH now blogging at
influential HuffPo ... Pathways to Wellness expanding, seeks
new executive director ... John Scaringe, DC chosen as president of
Southern California University of Health Sciences ... Tim Birdsall, ND,
FABNO honored as AANP Physician of the Year.
Credit Integrator reader Tayor Walsh for
diving into files on the Obama economic stimulus/American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) site to create this list of the 52 ARRA grants
awarded by the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine in 2009. The first year grants totaled roughly $18-million of
$32-million NCCAM will be disbursing. (The NCCAM total will ultimately
be 0.39% of the $8.2-billion of ARRA funds to the NIH.) Included in this
report are subjects, investigators, institutions, amounts and kind of
award, plus some Integrator analysis of the types of grants awarded. Thanks Taylor.
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.
What do you suppose are the top 3 modalities in terms of funding? What
is the percentage of NCCAM's $362-million in those years which was spent
on the top three? How does this meet your sense of priorities?
Karen Lawson,
MD, on the value of functional medicine for opening conventional MDs to
integrative practice; educator Beth Wooten Pimental, ND, on educational
issues begged by the column by Marty Rossman, MD; Linda Bark, RN,
notes the absence of integral nursing in the upcoming IHPM employer
conference; James Winterstein, DC, gives kudos to acupuncture physician
James Saylor, AP, for comments on patient -focused care; Jacob Schor,
ND, FABNO on a previous reference of Winterstein to what is properly
called the "whole Megillah;" CAM entrepreneur Taylor Walsh fills out the
Integrator Top 10 with an excellent post; and then, non-typical Integrator fare from adviser Michael Levin and Jessica Noggle, PhD, RYT regarding emerging research in contamination of our water supply.
My open letter
to Josephine Briggs, MD, who was appointed to direct the NIH NCCAM
despite having virtually no experience in complementary or integrative
medicine, produced a dozen, printable responses. Here are comments
from Harvard Associate Professor Michael Cohen, JD, naturopathic
medical leader Bruce Milliman, ND, Integrated Healthcare Policy
Consortium chair Sheila Quinn, holistic medicine pioneer Bill Manahan,
MD, nurse-coach Linda Bark, RN, natural product consultant Michael
Levin, publicist Rhonda Benfield, Georgetown law professor Sherman Cohn,
JD, Kaiser Permanente physician Lydia Segal, MD, Healing
Quest TV producer Judy Brooks and some who preferred to remain
anonymous. I conclude with an excellent short report from CAM
entrepreneur Taylor on Briggs' comments at her first NCCAM meeting,
February 1, 2008. The report and some early Briggs moves are hopeful.
Bill Manahan, MD, a former
president of the American Board of Holistic Medicine (ABHM) believes it's time
for the ABHM to integrate its faculty ... Bill Wulsin, ND, LAc, MPH
(cand.) questions whether the arguments made in an Integrator article
by author Paul Loeb (The Impossible Will Take a Little While) will
convince anyone of the value of an alliance of CAM disciplines which
they see as a "CAM ghetto" ... Integrative oncology organizer Ann
Fonfa wonders at the ghetto created when separate officers were set up
in the NIH ... Entrepreneur Taylor Walsh, makes a case for the
complementary/integrative space being poised for lift off ...
The
story on the success of a group-focused services clinical strategy for a
Chrysler employee population led by Robert Levine, PhD, for Henry Ford
Health Systems (HFHS), prompted a
number of responses. Lisa Rohleder, LAc, with the Community Acupuncture
Network (CAN) notes of stimulating a dialogue and real-time link with
Levine in the CAN Blog. The HFHS outcomes promoted Adrian Langford, who
runs a patient-focused program with a Medicaid population with
Alternative Medicine Integration Group, to comment on what promotes the
positive patient outcomes. Taylor Walsh wondered at the use by Karlo
Berger, ABT, LMT, of "collective healing" to describe some of the power
of these setting ... In other notes, the COCSA-AMI relationship
stimulated a note from COCSA executive director Janet Jordan ... Chris
Huson, LAc opens a dialogue about a suggested integrated pathway for
asthma and Rik Cederstrom, DC, responds to another attack on supplements
by author Michael Hurley, this one broadcast for Medscape. And Integrator adviser Michael Levin adds a comment on the latest Hurley blast.
