John Weeks

April 9, 2020

The Transition to the Private Sector of Integrative Underserved Leader Myles Spar, MD, MPH

It may be said that turning away from obsession with COVID-19 news to examine the professional shift in the life of integrative medicine leader Myles Spar, MD, MPH is a hard pivot. The Venice Family Clinic provider of integrative services to the underserved – and Bravewell Award winner for that work – recently moved from Los Angeles to New York to take a position as chief medical officer at Vault Health. The business is a start-up funded recently with an infusion of $30-million. Spar’s more recent re-positioning of his professional focus toward men’s health narrows the gap between the worlds. The specialty of Vault Health is male sexual vitality, around which Spar’s responsibilities include developing some integrative support. The hard pivot may be characterized as from service to the underserved to services for the under erect.
April 9, 2020

Restraining Trade? Evidence Says ACCME Is in Fact Targeting Integrative Medicine Continuing Medical Education

The easy access by medical doctors to accredited continuing medical education in integrative medicine is an engine of the field’s growth. So as stories emerged of what was believed to be an Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) clamp down, I engaged a series of interviews and reports. I reported direct and indirect assurances from ACCME’s CEO Graham McMahon, MD, MMSc that integrative medicine is not being targeted. Yet a recent commentary from leaders of the Osher Collaborative for Integrative Medicine raised the question again. I decided to review evidence to this date. I cannot but conclude that integrative medicine is, in fact, at the center of the bullseye in ACCME’s recent push for new standards of “content validity” regarding “controversial areas”. Here is the evidence.
March 28, 2020

Integrative (Weil), Naturopathic (AANP) and Nutrition (ANA) Organizations Open COVID-19 Resource Sites

Amidst of the waves of information on local, national and global developments related to COVID-19, efforts stand out of a few organizations to capture and bundle content that targets the integrative practice communities. Among the entities that have established resources pages are the University of Arizona Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and the American Nutrition Association.  In contradistinction to the advisories of the United States’ federal agencies and state governments, these organizations have in common that their leaders believe that there is more that an individual can do than “healthy waiting” (sleep, exercise, don’t smoke, limit sugar) as the virus continues its course through their communities. Each organization directly suggests multiple steps that might be indicated, and the science supporting it.
March 18, 2020

Yes, Friends, the Medical Industry Can Be Transformed: The VA’s Whole Health System of Care at 2 Years

That there should be a huge transformational drama underway in the US medical industry is a desire and dream that powers the integrative health movement and the work of many others. Those who might enjoy a sort of reality TV examination of not the fantasy but the multi-dimensional actuality of what such change looks like have a treat coming. The scene of action is 18 huge medical centers distributed across the entire United States. The script writers are 25 scientists on an evaluation team. The drama cuts across 4 deeply inter-related story lines: the impact of the transformational change on patients, on employees, on utilization, and on the extent of implementation and cost. We the people literally own this story. The investment and outcomes – from which any delivery organization can learn – are revealed in plain English in the public domain. If the launch of the transformational journey was Episode 1 of the series, then this 39-page report after two years is Episode 2. It’s deep insight into a dream coming true in the Whole Health System of Care at the US Veterans Administration (VA). It’s long awaited. And it is exciting.