Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public
Last month, over 600 health professionals convened in Washington, D.C. for 3 days for the “Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public.” Never before has there been a gathering of this sort. It was called a “watershed meeting” and a “historic” moment. The purpose of the Summit was to “advance the science, understanding and progress of integrative medicine.” The Summit brought together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and leaders from both the traditional and non-traditional medical fields.
Discussions at the Summit centered around many issues and themes previously discussed on this blog, including: the need to first develop an agreed upon model for integration; limitations of scientific methodologies in measuring “effectiveness” when it comes to certain non-traditional treatment modalities; the need for agreement on what robust evidence is in the world of integrative medicine; reimbursement considerations; the need for more patient-centered care; the value of the principles of naturopathic medicine, which include treating the whole person and addressing the root causes of illness.
The limitations of the current healthcare system were discussed, as well as solutions for improving it. Almost every speaker, whether from the traditional or alternative medical field, spoke about how the current system is focused solely on “disease care,” instead of on health care. Traditional doctors spoke about how they are facing epidemic proportions of individuals suffering from chronic diseases, such as heart disease, but that their tool kits seem inadequate to address the problem. They talked about how their training is limited to offering a set of drugs or surgeries, which can help with some acute problems, but they do not solve them. One speaker described the traditional reactive treatment approach as continuously mopping up the floor instead of just turning off the sink. Many speakers addressed the need for a more preventative and individualized approach to care and the need to empower patients to take a more active role in their health. Several medical practitioners and researchers highlighted the proven effectiveness of various alternative medical approaches to the treatment of chronic diseases, and how these approaches could benefit patients.
Other speakers addressed the practical issues regarding how to integrate medical professionals and the need for multi-disciplinary/inter-professional education. One of the more challenging aspects of integrating healthcare will be getting practitioners to talk to one another and collaborate with one another. Many in the medical profession have not embraced the idea of integrative medicine. It is still seen by many to be negative instead of additive. Reaching out and educating these individuals on the benefits of integration will likely be met with much resistance. For those doctors who are interested in collaborating and integrating with practitioners from other fields, a model will have to be developed for ensuring that doctors in both the traditional and non-traditional fields are competent, conversant, and educated in integrative medicine, including when to refer and who to refer to.
Ultimately, the success or failure of the integration of medicine will depend upon the type of healthcare reform that happens. Some speakers at the conference saw the answer in the universal healthcare model, which is a model that we have advocated against on this blog for various reasons. Giving the government more centralized control over the medical model and the practice of medicine is not the way to go about integrating healthcare, and it will do more harm than good when it comes to the quality of care afforded to patients, as well as alternative medicine’s ability to grow and thrive.
But while not every suggestion was a good one or a viable one, the value was not so much in what was said, but in the fact that the Summit happened in the first place. The value and significance of the Summit lie in the fact that the medical community is responding to and listening to its patients. More and more patients are going outside of traditional medicine for their healthcare. They are seeking the less-invasive, more proactive, individualized, patient-centered approach to care, which is the hallmark of alternative medicine. Patients have taken it upon themselves to integrate their own medical care, and now the caregivers are finally listening and attempting to work with one another.
It is uncertain what will happen from here. There is a long way to go before non-traditional medicine is recognized and accepted as valuable in its own right, before its benefits are fully understood and utilized by traditional medical professionals, before patient care is better coordinated among health professionals, before there is a paradigm shift in our approach to healthcare and the way we treat the human person, and before a coherent, feasible, and well-designed integrative model is established. But at least the conversation is beginning to happen.
If you are interested in watching the web cast of the event, you can access it through the Institute of Medicine’s website.
