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's Scope of Practice Partnership Targets 30 Legislative Efforts of DCs, NDs, LAcs and Certified Professional Midwives in 2009
The American Medical Association has been working in opposition to over 30 state legislative actions of naturopathic physicians, chiropractors, acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners and Certified Professional Midwives in 2009. The list of these actions, published here, is part of a broader list of 154 against all non-MD profession which the AMA as part of that guild's Scope of Practice Partnership campaign (AMA SOPP). The campaign, begun in 2006, is presented by the AMA as a public safety concern, though little evidence has materialized suggesting that this is other than an effort to keep other professions from entering the MDs turf. Here is the complete list of 30, and a link to the broader list of 154. More
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Taking on the AMA Campaign to Limit Scope: Interview with Incoming Coalition for Patients Rights Co-Chair Karen Howard, AANP Executive
When the American Medical Association (AMA) announced in 2006 that it was going to challenge scope of practice expansions of virtually all other professions, an amalgam of 35 organizations called the Coalition for Patient Rights (CPR) quickly sprung up to defend against what the AMA called its Scope of Practice Partnership. Four of the aligned organizations were from integrative practice fields. Among the 4 trained spokespersons for the CPR, and slated to become co-chair later this month, is Karen Howard, the executive director of CPR member American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. The Integrator caught up with Howard recently to learn more about the AMA campaign, and CPR's responses. Here is a brief interview. More
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Andrew Weil, MD Issues Health Care "Call to Action" with 7 Key Recommendations
Author and integrative medicine spokesperson Andrew Weil, MD is one of the nation's most recognized medical doctors. His is certainly the face of integrative medicine. This month, Weil put that face and influence directly in service to a "call to action" on the nation's healthcare. Weil's 7 recommendations quickly reached the 300,000-400,000 unique visitors to his own site plus readers of the Huffington Post and other national media. His voice arrived as the voice of integrative medicine. Are these recommendations your top seven for the field? What would you add, delete or shift in importance? Is this your top 7 agenda for shifting US healthcare? More
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Eight Views on Andrew Weil's Seven Recommendations for True Healthcare Reform: Major ND Response
The call for responses to Andrew Weil's recommendations for true healthcare reform brought the most response from the naturopathic medical community, plus a mix of others. Author and AANP president Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO commends Weil for his "revolutionary" recommendations, and underscores the importance of gathering outcomes data. Integrative health leader Pamela Snider, ND urges Weil to go further and points some useful directions, including interesting references suggesting cost savings. Holistic medicine leader Bill Manahan, MD suggests changes in consciousness as central to the 8 "transitions" he recommends. Thaddeus Jacobs, ND, LAc and Pamela Frank, BSc, ND urge more inclusion. Health coach educator Linda Bark, PhD, RN likes Weil's ideas, but wonders how they will take off if we don't work together. True North executive director Tom Dahlborg explores what might happen if we viewed healthcare not as a right but as an obligation, Finally, reader Mary Klifman wonders if we will get anywhere with any of Weil's recommendations without "corruption reform." More
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NCCAM’s 2009 Grants with Obama's Recovery Money: The List of 52 Awards Totaling $17.8-Million
Credit Integrator reader Tayor Walsh for diving into files on the Obama economic stimulus/American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) site to create this list of the 52 ARRA grants awarded by the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2009. The first year grants totaled roughly $18-million of $32-million NCCAM will be disbursing. (The NCCAM total will ultimately be 0.39% of the $8.2-billion of ARRA funds to the NIH.) Included in this report are subjects, investigators, institutions, amounts and kind of award, plus some Integrator analysis of the types of grants awarded. Thanks Taylor. More
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Integrative Medicine and Integrated Healthcare Round-up: September 4-October 6, 2009
Andrew Weil, MD offers 7 point action plan on health reform, community responds ... IOM report on Summit due out in November ... 47 members of Congress send letter backing non-discrimination among provider categories ... Academic Medicine article blasts R-25 integrative medicine programs in medical schools, U Minnesota responds ... Shifting landscape for massage educational organizations ... Group to issue educational standards for Yoga therapists ... NCCAM distributes portion of its Obama stimulus funds ... Beth Clay on controversy over trial of Gonzalez' integrative pancreatic cancer treatment ... FCER, the former spearhead for chiropractic research, ends 60 years of visionary action ... Women legislators back anti-discrimination approach toward licensed acupuncturists ... Blue Cross Blue Shield federal employees program continues to list chiropractic doctors as physicians ... Holistic nursing certification agency marks upbeat in interest ... Employer's story shows how prejudice may restrict appropriate use of workplace massage as cost-saver ... Review paper of cost-related studies of acupuncture ... Economist Herman clarifies how she selected studies used in her reported presentation on areas for cost-savings from CAM ... Philanthropist members in Bravewell Collaborative show some change since 2007 ... Ricki and Gunn big winners with $250,000 Dr. Rogers' Prize in complementary medicine ... Taylor Walsh shares integrative medicine tweeters ... Unique Hawaii Consortium for Integrative Health Care selects Wong as exec ... Dana Ullman, MPH now blogging at influential HuffPo ... Pathways to Wellness expanding, seeks new executive director ... John Scaringe, DC chosen as president of Southern California University of Health Sciences ... Tim Birdsall, ND, FABNO honored as AANP Physician of the Year. 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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