naturopathy

November 18, 2019

Changes at the VA: Gaudet Exits, Kligler in New Role, Integrative Whole Health in 37 new Locations

Word began to break mid-summer of two developments at the Veteran’s Administration related to the giant agency’s integrative whole health effort. One was that Tracy Gaudet, MD, the charismatic founding director of the VA’s Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation that birthed the initiative was moving on. The immediate response of many is concern. Yet the news came concurrently with word that the VA’s initiative is expanding from the initial 18 to 37 new sites. Even with leadership change at the top of the VA, the initiative is secure and strongly supported. I connected with Ben Kligler, MD, MPH, Gaudet’s colleague who is presently acting director for an update.
February 21, 2019

Boot-Strapping a Research-Base: Naturopathy’s Scientific Journey via a Journal Special Issue

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.