John Weeks

December 16, 2018

Is a New Trump Report Backing Obamacare’s Integrative Friendly “Non-Discrimination in Health Care”?

An alert went out two weeks ago to a set of policy-oriented integrative health and medicine types. The Trump administration had published a report – “Reforming America’s Healthcare System Through Choice and Competition.” The email suggested that there was support here for the non-discrimination in healthcare provision of the Affordable Healthcare Act (a.k.a. “Obamacare”). Was this actually a dovetailing support of the Trump administration with the healthcare policy of his predecessor? I took a look and then connected a lobbyist who was on the ground when the Obama administration’s Section 2706: Non-Discrimination in Health Care was being drafted. The findings on the Trump study were mixed.
December 16, 2018

Calling the Question: Integrative Medicine Moves toward Implementation Research

A significant trend is appearing in major research organizations on integrative health and medicine. The timing is right: in the United States, major reports, meetings and guidelines now include non-pharmacologic, a.k.a. integrative approaches. But how do we move these into practice? Top acupuncture, integrative oncology and general integrative health conferences are featuring what is called “implementation science.” This study of methods to promote the integration of research findings seeks to propel changes in healthcare policy and practice. The integrative trend arises amidst a renewed push for health services research of all kinds. Action on these lines can straighten out some twisted karma relative to the 1998 US Congressional legislative mandate that established the globe’s most significant scientific investment in alternative, complementary and integrative medicine.
December 15, 2018

Wyoming’s Radical Openness to NADA Ear Acupuncture: Community Healing Model for Anyone with the Blues?

In 2015, the legislature in the state of Wyoming made a significant investment in the idea that its people and communities could benefit if the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) 5-point ear acupuncture protocol was put in the hands of the people. They created a law that allowed any adult U.S. citizen with an interest, who took and completed the appropriate NADA training, to provide the services. And unlike other states that might limit services to a few conditions or locations, this piece of Wild West legislation allowed the practice for stress relief, for pain, for loneliness, grief and whatever else may be tearing at one’s vital force, at fire stations or churches, community centers or malls, and whereever else “ADSes” – as they call themselves – might gather one of more interested recipients. The experiment is most under way in Laramie, Wyoming, population 30,000. Can the Laramie experience be a healing tool for the nation?
December 2, 2018

Portrait of a Medical Cannabis Clinical Practice: Shaping the Road Ahead

In May of 2018 at the top global research meeting for integrative health and medicine, two academic leaders with medical cannabis practices organized an informal breakfast round-table. One co-convenor helping guide dialogue in the overflow room was Leslie Mendoza Temple, MD. The past chair of the politically-killed Illinois Medical Cannabis Advisory Board brought more than personal reflection to the attendees. Temple had performed a comprehensive chart review on the first 166 medical cannabis patients certified in the practice. Her findings, recently published, and her reflections on now 650 patients – plus the curious politics of cannabis in her state – will be eye-opening for practitioners tracking medical cannabis developments.