Integrator Blog News & Reports

Integration, by nature, asks us to open our peripheral visions. We are served to look at the whole of the field. We need to develop new fascia, new connectivity. Opportunities crop up in new places. The Integrator Blog News and Reports is meant to provide you with information, insights and tools to enhance integrated care in the environment you serve.

- John Weeks, publisher-editor

AMA SOPP Escalates Campaign Against Nurses, Chiropractors, Naturopaths, Midwives and Others

In June meetings, the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA) kicked off an escalating round of attacks on the advancement of other healthcare professions. Targeted this year were all disciplines with doctoral-level training, as well as licensed midwives. Chiropractors, naturopathic physicians and nurses - who cited Wilk v AMA - are among those quick to challenge the AMA. The AMA actions are part of that guild's divisive AMA Scope of Practice Partnership (SOPP), announced in January 2006. Meantime, one action at the House of Delegates meeting suggests that the snake on the AMA's caduceus may be biting its own tail. Resolution 235 is an effort to keep the AMA's own specialty societies from legislative actions that seek to restrict each other's scope of practice. More ...
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How the IOM-Bravewell Integrative Medicine Summit Could Make a Difference: A Proposed Action Plan

Do you think the National Summit on Integrative Medicine can make a difference? Planning for this February 25-27, 2009 gathering, sponsored by a partnership of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and the Bravewell Collaborative, is under way. I organize my recommendations around areas where exploration of integrative practice could have a significant impact on the nation's health care crisis. The high notes are a health-oriented approach, outpatient services, the patient-centered medical home, respect for multiple disciplines, researching whole practices as basis for managing chronic disease, and whole cost accounting. How do you think this Summit might create possibilities which the IOM's 2005 report didn't already open? More ...
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Institute of Medicine Names Planning Team for Integrative Medicine Summit: Snyderman to Chair

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences has announced a 12-person planning committee which will oversee development of the February 25-27, 2009 National Summit on Integrative Medicine and Health of the Public. The IOM is sponsoring the Summit in partnership with the Bravewell Collaborative of philanthropists. Here is a look at the 12 member team, chaired by Ralph Snyderman, MD, plus some musing on the not very integrated mix. Nine are MDs, suggesting that to the IOM, "integrative medicine" is an MD franchise. The Bravewell philanthropists have made a substantial commitment to make this happen. More ...
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IHPM/Employer Focus: Intel Explores Manual Therapies as an Onsite Musculoskeletal Pain Solution

Why would an employer want to explore a complementary therapy? How might a pilot project be established? This article describes a relationship between microprocessor giant Intel, researchers looking for onsite solutions to low-back pain at the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM), and the Dorn Companies, which hires licensed massage therapist to supply a Rolfing-based manual therapy to employees. Outcomes of this pilot project will be reported at the IHPM's fall conference in Scottsdale, October 15-17, 2008. More ...
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Columnist Levin: $24-Billion Savings through Supplement Interventions Says Lewin Group

Integrator columnist Michael Levin recently had occasion to read a series of reports, prepared by the internationally-known health care consulting firm, The Lewin Group. The subject: possible cost impact of pro-actively using a few dietary supplement interventions for a handful of conditions. The outcomes were compelling. Levin argues that this kind of work, funded by the dietary supplement industry, exemplifies forward thinking collaborative effort needed to advance the integrative and natural health fields. The story of this strategic funding will be familiar to chiropractic. More ...
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Resources

Integrator Archive by Subject for January-June 2007
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Integrator Archive by Subject for 2006: All Hot-linked
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