An additional significant place where integrative practitioners gained an explicit foothold in Congressional action relative to health reform is in the comparative effectiveness research (CER) language in SB 3590. Gretchen DuBeau, executive director...
One of the rarely sung, significant influencers of our field is entrepreneur Jim Strohecker. Some 18 years ago he was executive editor of the 1100 page text, Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide which involved nearly 400 practitioners and...
On or about the winter solstice, the Integrator announces a Top 10 from the previous year which will support the coming of the light for integrative practice in the New Year. Here is the 2009 Integrator Top 10 for integrative policy, practice...
Implementing healthy practices seem straightforward. Solving them seems to be not "rocket science." But then why are we having such difficulties? A public-private Healthy Nation Partnership and a section of proposed federal health reform legislation...
That NCCAM's 2011-2015 strategic plan is critically important to the future of the integrative practice field is clear from this set of stakeholder responses. Together, these 8 organizations represent over 360,000 licensed practitioners: Integrated...
The issue of insurers incentivizing good behavior, and particularly the relationship of such policies with the growing epidemic of obesity, calls integrative practitioners to the challenging balancing act of finances, health, behavior change and of...
The Summary Report from the Institute of Medicine on the February 2009 Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public is an expansive and stimulating conversation for anyone close to the integrative practice movement. The more than 60...
I split my professional life between the Integrator and related writing and the organization featured here, the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) which, as a multidisciplinary entity, lives and breaths the...
A doctor level, non-MD academic friend from a conventional medical school who has expertise in complementary and alternative medicine inadvertently stepped into a militarized zone the other day. On a conference call with a multidisciplinary group of...
Passage of a bipartisan amendment from US Senators John Ensign (R-NV) and Tom Carper (D-DE) has elevated a debate Integrator columnist Michael Levin has repeated brought to these pages. To change behavior, in Levin's view, "education rarely works...
John Weeks