John WeeksSummary: New 18-practitioner integrative clinic and robust growth at Samaritan Health Services … Inner Harmony celebrates 10th year and moves to new space at Scranton’s Mercy Hospital … HRSA in $310,000 grant to Palmer College of Chiropractic and Jefferson’s integrative medicine prorgam for multidisciplinary practice-based CAM-IM research network … National College of Natural Medicine expands … AHEC grant funds scholarship for fellowship at Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine to help serve underserved … Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, a research-education-integration leader for AOM marks 25th year … Board of NADA, the acu-detox group, affirms value of 5-point protocol for stress, pain management, not just detox … Report on national massage therapy clinical practice guidelines funded and developed through Massage Therapy Foundation … American Chiropractic Association announces policy-related action of its House of Delegates … Signature Supplements gets high tech business development loan from state of Maryland … Update on Minnesota-based Collaboration Health Care group started by form American Chiropractic Network team … plus more…
Integrative Clinics & Hospitals
Penny George honored by Allina
The top news is that philanthropist Penny George was honored by Allina which renamed their inpatient (14,500 visits year) and outpatient (8,000 visits a year) integrative center the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing. (See Allina Honors Integrative Medicine Visionary: Top Program Becomes the Penny George Institute, October 1, 2008.)
Robust growth in Wallace’s Samaritan Health Services integrative centers
“Growth has been enormous” states medical director, Mary Ann
Wallace, MD, of the 7-year-old Heartspring Wellness Clinic in Corvallis, Oregon. Wallace was interviewed for a September 24, 2008 article in the Corvallis, Oregon-based Gazette-Times Reporter (Samaritan expands holistic clinic) regarding a new and expanded integrative medicine facility, part of Samaritan Health Services, which is expected to include eight new practitioners. The article notes that the full staff of the Corvallis Heartspring Wellness Center will include 18 providers
who “offer everything from general family medicine to counseling,
osteopathic and naturopathic services, as well as acupuncture,
Feldenkrais and a variety of other services …are
aimed at holistic health care for the mind and body.” The building was designed to facilitate cross-fertilization of ideas between the various practitioners. Wallace’s integrative work in the past seven years has also included establishing a sister clinic in Albany, Oregon and “both are focused on cooperation and
interchange of ideas,” according to Wallace. The Corvallis Center will have an open house on November 14, 2008.
Inner Harmony celebrates 10th anniversary with Chopra and new space at Mercy Hospital
On October 11, 2008, Scranton, Pennsylvania-based Inner Harmony Group will “unveil a fountain of wisdom” at their “new eco-friendly green facility” at Mercy Hospital. Peter Amato, founder, writes with the notice that
“we have an exciting
two weeks ahead as we are bringing Deepak Chopra to our community as well as
celebrating our tenth year with an open house.” Chopra’s presentation will be on October 8, 2008. Inner Harmony will have a training program on Primordial Sound Meditation, as developed by Chopra, November 7-9, 2008 at their Scranton clinic. Services at the Mercy facility are broad, from conventional primary care to diverse complementary and self-care services. The Integrator sponsor has also opened a clinic with an energy medicine focus in Santa Monica.
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Research
Palmer and Jefferson-Myrna Brind Centers Receive HRSA grant for practice-based research network
The US Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) has awarded a grant for $310,479 to the Palmer Center for
Chiropractic Research (PCCR) to establish a practice-based research network to
assess complementary and alternative medicine models of pain management. The project is a collaboration, with Palmer sub-contracting for half of
the grant amount ($155,239) to the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative
Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The principal investigator, Maria Hondras, DC, MPH, from PCCR, states that “the long-term goal is to
establish a large, pain-focused practice-based research network of
complementary and alternative medicine providers who systematically collect
health outcomes assessments from their patients and track outcomes.” Co-investigators
include Christine Choate, DC, PhD, the executive director for research at the PCCR, Cynthia Long, PhD, also from PCCR, and from the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center, Daniel Monti, MD
and Joel Edman, DSc.
The release notes that a multidisciplinary steering committee for the project includes Mitchell Haas, MS, DC and top researchers in the naturopathic medicine and AOM fields, including Carlo Calabrese, ND, MPH, Wendy Weber, ND, MPH, PhD, Patricia Herman, ND, MS, PhD, Richard Hammerschlag, PhD. Hondras notes that the goal is to “establish a CAM-PBRN including
providers in chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, naturopathy,
osteopathic manual medicine and integrative medicine,” and that the PCCR team “looks forward to this
multi-disciplinary collaborative effort.” The full release is reprinted here.
Comment: Great to see this support from HRSA, the underfunded federal agency with a responsibility to look at practical outcomes and costs in our healthcare system. As executive director of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Healthcare (ACCAHC), I like to add that Choate and all 5 steering committee members mentioned are also members of the Research Working Group for ACCAHC.
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Academics
Honoring Oregon College of Oriental Medicine Celebrates in its 25th Year
Congratulations to Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) which is celebrating its 25th anniversary on October 5, 2008. The Portland, Oregon-based school has been a significant player in both the evolution of the acupuncture and Oriental medicine discipline (AOM) as well as the broader integrative medicine dialogue. The school’s personnel have included: a long-time chair of the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (past president Elizabeth Goldblatt, PhD, MPA/HA), co-founder of the influential Society for Acupuncture Research (Richard Hammerschlag, PhD) and the past-president of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (Carol Taub, LAc). Goldblatt is also a co-founder and current chair of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care, for which Hammerschlag serves as co-chair of the Research Working Group, noted above.
The college also forged an early, strong relationship with Oregon Health & Science University which flourished to become a model set of inter-institutional relationships as the Oregon Centers for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (OCCIM, pronounced “awesome”), led by Anne Nedrow, MD. OCOM was also among the first AOM schools to create a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (DAOM) program and was the first AOM school to receive an education grant from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. OCOM’s president is Michael Gaeta, EdD, an early leader in promoting a wellness approach inside community health. Immediately prior to coming to OCOM, Gaeta served as an executive with the Planetree organization. A recent news account noted that OCOM has opened its first free-standing clinic to serve Portland’s underserved, with rates at $12/visit instead of $50-$90. Congratulations on 25 years of academic, professional and research leadership!
Tucson AOM and conventional school sponsor CAM networking breakfasts
The Asian Institute of Medical Studies and The
Mien Shiang Institute are hosting monthly networking opportunities for the complementary and alternative healthcare professionals in Tucson. The first of the 2-hour events focused on “The Vision of Integrative Medicine in Tucson” and featured Victoria Maizes, MD, MPH from the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine as well as the president’s of the two institutes, Alex Holland, MAc, LAc, and Patrician McCarthy, respectively.
National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) expands campus
Another part of the OCCIM network of academic institutions noted in the OCOM piece, above, is the former National College of Naturopathic Medicine, which changed its name to National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) when it began offering a second professional program, in Classical Chinese Medicine. NCNM has announced a plan to purchase additional land and buildings adjacent to NCNM’s present location, not far from Oregon Health & Science University facilities in downtown Portland, Oregon. With the purchase, NCNM will consolidate the school’s teaching clinics. NCNM’s president David Schleich, PhD, views the acquisition as a part of a “multi-phased growth plan” to meet anticipated demand. NCNM’s clinical services, many through neighborhood clinics, have a significant role in meeting needs for the underserved in the Portland area. NCNM provides over 40,000 free or low-cost medical visits to the underserved each year through a network of relationships with community clinics. The school’s research arm is the Helfgott Research Institute.
Federal AHEC program extends $20,000 scholarship to Arizona integrative medicine fellowship
The Arizona Area Health Education Centers (AzAHEC) has made $20,000 available for a scholarship to the Fellowship inm Integrative Medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. The scholarship is available to MDs, DOs, physicians assistants or nurse practitioners who practice in one of the five “qualifying AHEC areas.” The mission of the AzAHEC program is “to improve the recruitment, diversity, distribution, and retention of culturally competent personnel providing health services in rural and medically underserved communities.”
Comment: Many states have AHEC programs which share this vision. The move in Arizona may open a door to access to integrative services among the underserved if others become interested. Notably, the state of Washington has followed a different route for expanded access to integrative services through increasingly opening its loan-repayment program for naturopathic physicians. The Washington state program, nourished along through an advisory role of Pamela Snider, ND, has focused on expanding primary care services.
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Professions and Organizations
Thriving acupuncture detox group expands beyond addiction to pain and stress services
The September 2008 newsletter of the board of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) has “explicitly affirmed the expansion of NADA protocol therapy into others areas of behavioral health care in addition to our historical and abiding focus on addiction, recovery and relapse prevention.” While scope is not specifically addressed, the newsletter notes, as examples, its support of the work of Laura Cooley, LAc. Cooley has worked “with victims, patients, communities, first responders, healthcare entities, military personnel, elective officials and legislators in post-Katrina Louisiana.” The organization boasts 1400 members, 40% licensed acupuncturists. Over 1000 programs in the United States presently use the NADA protocol. Notably, this growth has come during a period when the Bush administration has delayed in issuing guidelines on the use of the NADA protocol, according to an editorial in the same issue.
Comment: This looks like a natural move toward pain and stress conditions, and also a confirmation that those in the licensed acupuncture world who opposed NADA’s certification movement were right that the NADA practitioners would eventually move beyond addiction treatment. My own bias is toward the expansion of this low cost treatment model. Notably, this comes at a time in which the military is approving a NADA-like protocol (see article on Samueli Institute program) and the community room acupuncture model is taking off (see recent article on Working Class Acupuncture).
Steps toward Massage therapy guidelines reported
The founding issue of the International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork includes an 18 page article entitled “Steps Toward Massage Therapy Guidelines: A First Report to the Profession” (Grant K et al) which is available in PDF by clicking here. The work reported in the article was carried out by the Best Practices Committee of the Massage Therapy Foundation, which funded the work. The authors note that the working definition of guidelines used by the Committee is that of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. The goal of the work was to create a product which would be submitted to the National Guidelines Clearinghouse. The team suggests a process for guideline creation, under-scoring the importance of transparency and inclusion.
American Chiropractic Association (ACA) reports policy action from Delegates meeting
The ACA has reported the following policy-related actions from its September 17-2008, 2008 House of Delegates meeting. The following bullets are directly as published by the ACA:
- Noting that informed consent is a process, and more
than simply obtaining a signed form from the patient that is then kept in
their patient health record. Moreover, informed consent is an ongoing
process and the discussion should continue throughout the course of
patient care. - Extending the benefit of complimentary Chiropractic
Assistant membership to all actively practicing doctor members. - Stating it is appropriate to manipulate/adjust a
segment(s) that may not be symptomatic and/or located in the same spinal
region as the patient’s area of chief complaint. The policy notes
that segments should be identified through objective measures and should
have a direct therapeutic effect. - Reminding providers that third-party billing for
assessment and treatment of persons of a close personal nature that would
by common practice be furnished gratuitously may be unethical. - Encouraging the affiliation and collaboration of
state chiropractic organizations with the ACA.
In addition, the ACA told is members that it is creating a Practice Profitability Task Force “to provide ACA members with opportunities to increase their bottom line.” One step will be a monthly webinar through which members can receive expert advice on how to profit in practice.”
Comment:
I approached this report with the hope that the ACA would be looking at broader health reform issues. Of the 5 bullets, 3 are relatively obscure and clinical (if important clarifications), and two internal organizational. None reflect on the broader culture of healthcare or suggest any sort of connectivity. In some parts of the chiropractic profession, the focus of discussion is over the profession’s “cultural authority” – or, more typically, lack thereof. (See Chiro Group Consensus-Priorities on Public Trust and Equity, March 16, 2006.) This navel gazing, and continued focus on profit and bottom line are cases in point for why cultural authority may be escaping them.
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Business Developments
Signature Supplements receives state of Maryland development loan
Urbana, Maryland-based Signature Supplements announced in September that its has been selected by the state of Maryland’s TEDCO business technology development agency to receive a $50,000 business development loan. The firm’s founder and CEO is Gary Sandman. The release notes that the firm is “part of the Maryland BioTech
incubator program.” The firm’s proprietary technology is a health test based on “25 years of
research on 100 aspects of 25,000 clients’ blood, tissue and urine
biochemistry.” The test, available on their site, helps the firm then individualize a supplement regime. Marc Micozzi, MD, PhD, a consultant to the firm, explains the process: “Signature Supplements provides the nutrition test for
free, so that everyone can determine if they need to adjust their supplements
and their eating habits.” The loan will be used for the expansion of the firm. The release notes that the firm “is working with the Maryland
Governors office and the United States Department of Agriculture to determine
the learning benefits of the Signature Supplements program with students with
ADD, ADH and aggressive behavior.”
Update on Minnesota-based “Collaboration Health Care” formed by managed DC leaders
Michael Zdychnec, DC, a former leader of the United Healthcare affiliate American Chiropractic Networks sent the Integrator a brief report of activities of Collaboration Health Care, Inc. for which he is CEO. The consulting firm, which also includes RT Donahue, DC and Sara Heim, “is dedicated to helping create a collaborative health care system in
the by facilitating change and introducing new ideas to the health care
market.” An early client was a chiropractic independent practitioner association
(IPA) and a second Health Fitness Corporation. They believe that chiropractic has is
at a “strategic
infection point” in its development, to use a phrase of former Intel chair Andy Grove. Their role: “Focus
on new concepts and new ideas and not focus on the way
things ‘always have been’ and giving it a go.” Zdychnec notes that they
are in discussion with from ACN CEO Tom Allenburg, DC and Stephen Bolles, DC “to explore opportunities in the integrative medicine marketplace.” (See Bolles’ Integrator interview on the third party payment world here.) Zdychnec adds: “After working 30 years in an industry with silos and relatively poor
relationships, we think it’s time to break the silos down and develop the
relationships that are going to be required to change the way things are
(hence, our name).
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Charting the Mainstream & Miscellaneous
Consumers cutting healthcare spending
A recent Wall Street Journal article, Consumers Cut Health Spending as Economic Downturn Takes Toll (September 22, 2008) notes that pharmaceutical purchases are off for the first time in 10 years and that “despite an aging and growing U.S. population, the number of physician
office visits also has been declining since the end of 2006.” Visits fell 1.2% between July 2007 and July 2008. One survey found that 22% were cutting back on visits and 11% on prescription drugs. Another found that even those with good insurance plans were cutting back.
Comment: One wonders if self care, and integrative care expenditures will also decrease, or will they be counter-cyclical? Best bet is that, with less cash, there will be fewer shoppers.
Miscellaneous
Integrator adviser Jan Schwartz, CMT sends a note about an article in Massage Magazine in which the writer, a chiropractor and massage therapist, Drew Riffe, DC, MT writes about the growing trend for chiropractors and massage therapists to work together. While the article is a promotional piece for Parker College of Chiropractic where Riffe runs the massage program, the content is a good sign of collaboration. Many DC schools have massage programs …
NCMIC Group, an Integrator sponsor, has a new site, NCMIC Naturopathic Solutions that focuses on their naturopathic medical services. Featured on the site is Michael Traub, ND, a past president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, who played a major role in forging the relationship between his profession and the firm …
An Integrator reader, a chiropractic practitioner, sent a note that those interested in “some straight talk for a doctor who practices at the heart of alternative medicine” might be interested in his blog.” On first look, I saw reference to the “absolute lack of nutrition training of MDs.” I wrote back that I don’t think that is “straight talk” but ranks with saying chiropractors “have an absolute lack of interest in evidence-based medicine” (which is the sport of thing the anti-chiropractic MDs might say). Monolithic portrayals and polarization are not very useful to us in this time, in health care or in world politics.
Taylor Walsh notes a Forbes magazine article about “patient-driven organizations that raise enough money to hire drug companies to create drugs for their specific disease” with examples being Leukemia and Lymphoma. He wonders if these groups might invest in non-pharma solutions – maybe they have” …
IN-CAM, the Canadian Interdisciplinary Network for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research organization has announced an affiliation with Homeonet, a newly formed research network to advance research in homeopathy.
johnweeks@theintegratorblog.com
for inclusion in a future Your Comments Forum.
Dr. Judith Orloff MD
Barry Bittman MD
Dr Jacob Teitelbaum MD