- John Weeks, Writer, Speaker, Change Agent. Click below to subscribe to the Integrator
- johnweeks@theintegratorblog.com
Blog
February 21, 2019
Non-naturopathic doctors will have at least these reasons to explore the Special Focus Issue on Naturopathy. One is the review of the necessary scientific work by that whole system profession’s researchers to examine multimodal and whole person treatment. Its the best concerted effort of any integrative health profession. A second is to witness naturopathic medicine’s journey in the last 35 years to raise a scientific mission from scratch. A third is for insight into this still small profession’s outsized contributions to the evolution of integrative health. Their foundational work in linking science to natural health modalities is at its root. The February 2019 volume from JACM-Paradigm, Practice and Policy Advancing Integrative Health (The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine) is available in open access until March 20, 2019.
February 6, 2019
It was astonishing two decades ago when word emerged that medical device industry giant Medtronic – famed for its pacemakers – had made $1-million grants for cardiologists at heart centers across the country to explore complementary therapies. One seeded the creation of a center at Scripps led by interventional cardiologist Mimi Guarneri, MD. Guarneri would go on to be awarded the Bravewell Award, become the founding president of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) and most recently be presenting her Live Better Now program for PBS. I checked in with her early this “heart month” of February to get a sense of the state of integrative cardiology.
February 3, 2019
For the past half decade, the Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM) has carried the policy mantle for integrative pain treatment into ever more influential places. The beacons were the 2017 and 2018 Integrative Pain Care Policy Congress. The most recent convened 70 stakeholder organizations, including key payers and federal agencies. On January 29, 2019, AIPM announced that it has ceased operations. Amidst the present opportunities for transforming pain treatment, the integrative pain field lost its engine. Oddly, the very challenges to the pharma industry in the center of the dominant pain model were part of AIPM’s undoing.
January 27, 2019
The January 23, 2019 press release did not mention that that date is celebrated annually as International Integrative Health Day. Yet the announcement from the Integrative Health Policy Consortium (IHPC) on new bipartisan political action is potentially one of the field’s most powerful enduring boosts. The US Congress’ Integrative Health and Wellness Caucus has been re-booted with two new co-chairs strongly committed to integrative approaches to pain management: Judy Chu (D-CA) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN). An interview with the integrative health lobbyist closest to the action, IHPC government affairs director Kallie Guimond underscores the opportunity for bi-partisan action.