July 20, 2007

Table of Contents:

  1. Expo 2007 Overview: 25th Anniversary!
  2. AAAOM Board Policy on Endangered Species
  3. NIH NCCAM Stakeholders Meeting Summary
  4. Community Addiction Recovery Association
  5. PanAfrican Acupuncture Project
  6. James Duke Journey to Costa Rica
  7. Integrator Blog
  8. Clinicians to Discuss Current State of Pain Management
  9. Trudy McAlister Scholarship Fund

 

Greetings OM Members and Colleagues:

Welcome to the June-July Qi-Unity Report! Just like the Christmas Holidays where the season arrives earlier each year, the buzz of Expo 2007 at the Portland Hilton, October 18 – 22, is now upon us! This is an extraordinary year – not only will we publicly celebrate the unification of our organizations as the AAAOM, but equally this event marks an important passage… the combined 25th Anniversary of the AAAOM, NCCAOM, CCAOM and ACAOM.

Early Bird: Ends August 1, 2007
DON’T DELAY – Register Today!


Expo 2007 Portland
Registrations Now Being Accepted
Attendees Brochure (PDF)
On-Line Registration Form
On-Line Hotel Reservations

Venue: The Hilton Portland & Executive Tower
Date: October 19 – 21, 2007
(Pre-Conf: 18th – Post-Conf: 22nd)

Expo 2007 Portland
Exhibitors Brochure (PDF)
Exhibitors Booth Map

Expo Updates: In providing conference updates, your time is valuable. We've adopted a format that will allow you to quickly scan that which is of interest to you. You'll find overviews from the perspectives of our practitioner community, students, exhibitors, the 25th Anniversary Celebration, and the Sites of Portland. Join us for extraordinary workshops designed to hone your skills and feed your soul, embrace the culture, sites and sounds of Portland, and celebrate our past and the unlimited future that lies ahead. We invite you to take a moment from your busy day to read about the conference events – from the perspectives of our practitioner community, students, exhibitors, the 25th Anniversary Celebration, and the Sites of Portland. See you in Portland!

Event Overview: We are pleased to announce that this year’s conference features 37 workshops and events, 43 speakers, for a total of 47 CEUs (pending) over a 5-day span. The conference opens on Thursday, October 18, 2006, with an 8-hour panel: The Medical Nomenclature Debates, and closes with one full-day Post-Conference workshop, on Monday, October 22, 2007, Beauty, Health and Well-Being...a Dynamic Business Model.

Friday morning’s General Session is a must attend for one and all. As a celebratory event, the general session will convene to address myriads of topics that comprise our profession from the perspectives of the journey, the present, and the future. We shall explore the topics of multi-cultural efforts and collaborations, scope of practice, access to herbs, integrative medicine, insurance, educational standards, and much more! The General Session panelists are being selected to represent a panorama of perspectives, history, and vision.

As a Friday evening, October 19, 2007 kick-off event, we’re planning “Charting the Future of OM” Join us for this exciting and interactive event, to be followed by a full weekend of activities, to help chart the future of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine into the 21st century. This is a critical step in the strategic planning process our profession. Allow your voice to be heard in facilitating the direction of the profession. The process involves the use hand held devices that allow input to be anonymously reflected overhead to facilitate interaction, communication, and discussion among the diverse range of practitioners and partners to the profession. A summary report will be published that will guide AAAOM strategy and policy decisions and will serve as a foundation for collaborative work together and with others. Trained facilitators and futurists will facilitate this workshop.

Annual Meeting: AAAOM Annual Meeting and Election of Directors will be on Saturday, October 20, 2007, from 8 AM to 10 AM. The is free to Members Only. We suggest AAAOM members place this on their calendar now as it is the first scheduled annual meeting post-reunification! The annual meeting will be followed by five simultaneously scheduled 2-hour workshops. Our Saturday afternoon features five 4-hour workshops.

On Sunday, October 22, 2007 we will feature an eight-hour workshop on Integrative Medicine. Come join this panel of licensed acupuncturists who are practicing integrative medicine successfully in a Western medical setting. Attendees will discuss transforming the walls of resistance in the Western community and communicating effectively with hospital administrators. Four additional 4-hour workshops are scheduled in the AM, followed by three 4-hour workshops in the afternoon. For the first time ever, AAAOM is sponsoring a Public-Track (reference below) for the patient community and the public-at-large. This Track runs on Sunday and consists of two AM and two PM workshops. All speakers are from outside the area, so local practitioners are encouraged to invite patients and their families to attend at a rate of only $50 for the full day of workshops or $25 for a half-day.

The conference concludes with a full day of post-conference workshops on Monday, October 22, 2006, starting at 8:00 AM and ending at 5:00 PM.

Featured Workshop:
Infertility and Women’s Hormonal Journey
Miki Shima, OMD, LAc
Friday – October 19, 2007 – 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Abstract: This short essay is descriptive of how the author conducts an infertility clinic with Western reproductive endocrinologists, achieving demonstrated national success in 2004. The author urges all infertility patients (male and female) to get Western medical examination before embarking on TCM infertility treatment. Described herein is the author’s Kidney Return Treatment, Eighth Extraordinary Vessel Treatment, and herbal treatment protocols. More. (PDF)

On behalf of the AAAOM and the new national student organization, the AAAOM-SO, we'd like to invite you to join us at the AAAOM '07 International Portland Conference & Expo, focusing on Strength through Unification, October 19-21, 2007. We're encouraging all students across the country to 'help choose the direction of your future' by personally attending this outstanding event.

Link to Student letter
Link to Slide Presentation (PowerPoint)

EXHIBITORS: Attendees will find the Hilton Grand Ballroom, the Pavilion Exhibit Area and the surrounding hallways featuring 87 of our profession’s foremost exhibitors, offering a myriad of state-of-the-art OM products and services. For those of you who attended Expo 2005 and 2006, based on popular demand, exhibitor coupon books will again be featured. Many attendees found our coupon books so valuable, they followed exhibitors down the elevator to assure they were first in line! ATTENDEE LUNCHES WILL BE LOCATED IN THE GRAND BALLROOM.

Peak Exhibitor Hours – Attendee Refreshment Breaks – Hilton Grand Ballroom and Pavilion Exhibit Area
(Changes in this schedule will be noted in the Conference Binder)
Morning Break: 9:30–10:30 • Lunch: 12:00–2:00 • Afternoon Break: 3:30–4:30

We are approaching the 25-year anniversary of the AAAOM. It does not signify simply the inception of a professional organization. More accurately it reflects the zenith of professional, political, and personal forces having conspired together and birthed Traditional Oriental Medicine in the United States.

It is no small feat historically that TOM survived in an often hostile world of medicines. To honor this occasion and our rich history, we are creating an evening to pay homage to the venerated masters of our medicine. From our teachers, we first cultivate our knowledge base, hewn our skills as well as struggle with our weaknesses. The translation of the word sensei means one who has gone before. The achievement of ‘going through’ is in and of itself remarkable. Yet each of our masters has gone beyond even that for the purpose of teaching and sharing. Ultimately, through us, our masters’ hands touch our patients as often as do we. It is their kindness, wisdom and expertise which continues to ripple through our daily practices continually adding to richness our medicine.

Join us! Meet and honor our many teachers, share a sumptuous 5-course meal and enjoy an evening with live music. This will be the rare opportunity to witness glimpses of personal and professional histories, as well as honor their invaluable contributions to our medicine. Free-standing historical exhibits will be on-site also.

Each of us is a library of pivotal moments when a teacher influenced our perception, expanded our view and changed who are. We invite you to contact us with nominations of those invaluable masters. Please contact Karen Reynolds at kreynolds@aaaomonline.org.

Greetings: The AAAOM Conference Committee is pleased to announce a new member benefit that premiers with Expo 2007 – an all-day Public Track on Sunday, October 22, 2007. The four 2-hour workshops are affordably priced. We felt offering such workshops provides beneficial community service, and will expand awareness of our profession far beyond the local contingencies attending. If successful, we plan to offer a public track each year. We are careful to select speakers from outside the area so that education can be provided without creating competition. As such, these workshops offer a wonderful opportunity for persons unfamiliar with Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine as well as patients that want to share our medicine with family and friends! Public Workshop Brochure (PDF)

Most sincerely,

The AAAOM 2007 Conference Committee
Deborah Lincoln RN, MSN, RAc, NCCAOM, Conference Chair
Travis Buckmaster LAc, PC, Conference Co-Chair

 

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This Issue Sponsored By:

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AAAOM Board Policy on Endangered Species:


The AAAOM strongly supports the production of Chinese herbs that pose no risk to any endangered plant or animal species. Use of rare or endangered plants or animals is unsustainable and at odds with basic principles of harmony and balance, which are central to Oriental Medicine philosophy. We applaud the producers and manufacturers who dedicate resources to upholding these values, and we encourage our members to support them when purchasing herbs and other traditional medicines.

NIH NCCAM Stakeholders Meeting Summary

Executive Summary:

On June 20, 2007, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) held a “Stakeholder Dialogue” at NIH in Bethesda, MD where members of the CAM community met with the director of NCCAM to discuss the Center’s activities and priorities. The key questions addressed in the dialogue were:

  1. What are the greatest opportunities for research in the next few years?
  2. What are the greatest challenges to conducting CAM research?
  3. Do you see CAM research having an impact on trends in integrative medicine?

Dr. Ruth Kirschstein, acting director of NCCAM began the meeting by commenting how far the “Office of Alternative Medicine” (original name of NCCAM) since the early 1990’s in terms of breadth of study and funding. She explained that NCCAM was established in 1999 to:

The primary goal according to their Strategic Plan (available online at www.NIH.gov) is to integrate Western Medicine and CAM strategies into comprehensive care.

They break the CAM domains into:

  1. Biological based practices (the largest area studied)
  2. Botanicals & dietary practices
  3. Mind-body medicine
  4. Acupuncture and Neurological effects
  5. Energy Medicine
  6. Tai Qi
  7. Manipulative/body-based therapies

Below is a general funding profile from 1992 to 2007 (Based on a sketch – just get the point that they went from $2M up to roughly $120M.

The general feel of the conference was one of open communication. The participants had a number of constructive criticisms ranging from suggesting they study HEALTHY people –“ it’s supposed to be National Institutes of Health, not National Institutes of Disease…” to advocating practitioner involvement from inception of the study through to its publication. The second half of the day had three breakout sessions focused on the areas of Research, Outreach, and Research Training. I participated in the Research group where I suggested they focus more on Clinical relevance as opposed to the mechanistic view studying minute changes in hormones, neurotransmitters, etc., with outcome measures such as Quality of Life. Additionally I clarified that even though “Insomnia” has one diagnosis in Western medicine, it has six or more differential diagnoses in Chinese medicine. You can’t expect to get good results from ONE point combination if you’re treating a myriad of insomnia syndromes.

Details:

In the morning session, participants suggested the following:

In the afternoon breakout session, Richard Nahin (Director of Scientific Research) and Jack Killen (Director of International Research) discussed the strategic plan in an open forum with the participants.

NIH identified 36 goals and 85 objectives, although did not elucidate on how to reach these goals. The research priorities included in the strategic plan are:

Some of the conditions to be studied, and their response to CAM therapies are:

The Directors explained the research community is working toward a “whole system approach” to studying disorders and CAM modalities in the treatment of those issues and mentioned that an automated questionnaire is under development called “PROMIS” (Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System) that will encompass a greater number of health aspects compared to previous surveys that will “dig deeper” in areas that require more specifics and gloss over those not pertinent to the patients’ condition(s).

As the suggestions/comments rolled in, the Directors did their best to address the practitioners’ concerns and stated future research will reflect the suggestions of the audience.

Community Addiction Recovery Association (CARA)

September 27-29, 2007, Red Lion Sacramento Inn, Sacramento, CA

Presenting "Beyond Talk Therapy: New Frontiers in Addiction Treatment" featuring Michael Smith, MD, on "Healing Through Relationship, Not Action"

Libby Stuyt, MD, on acupuncture for smoking cessation and addiction in a mental health facility

Lianne Audette, LAc, on using ear seeds for adults and infants

Joan Mathews-Larson, PhD, on addiction as a nutritional deficiency disease

Julia Ross on successful treatments for methamphetamine and marijuana addiction

And other experts in acupuncture, nutrition, tai chi, qi gong, yoga, EMDR, EFT, and cranial electrical stimulation used for addiction treatment.

CEUs will be offered; Contact www.carasac.org or 916-485-2272 for more information.

PanAfrican Acupuncture Project (PAAP)

The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project (PAAP) was founded in 2001 in response to the sudden press coverage of the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa. With the knowledge of just how dire the situation was, I was immediately motivated to travel to Africa to treat using acupuncture, which experience had demonstrated to be very beneficial to HIV+ individuals. However, quickly it became very evident that one individual would never be able to do enough. To empower the African people themselves, to provide them with this simple tool—acupuncture, would enable those who were suffering to receive treatment.

And so, PAAP was created, embracing the belief that the most effective way we can help to relieve the suffering of patients with HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB is to empower community members themselves. This approach, backed by research and over a decade of clinical experience, has led the Project to commit to the training of local community-health providers so that they can provide simple, yet highly effective acupuncture treatments to reduce symptoms and increase the quality of life for those living with HIV infection, malaria, and TB. Through the use of a detailed, easily understood acupuncture training manual and guided by the expertise of specially trained, licensed acupuncturists, Trainees learn how to implement treatment protocols specifically formulated to address the symptoms and signs associated with HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. In addition, trainees learn acupuncture protocols that can be used to reduce the stress experienced by other health-care providers and the family members of those with HIV, TB, and malaria.

Thus far, the Project has conducted five Training Sequences in Uganda, each composed of three week-long trainings, and has trained 120 healthcare workers there, including midwives, physiotherapists, a traditional healer, nurses, nurse midwives, and medical doctors. These 120 newly trained practitioners in one year provide approximately 78,000 treatments, demonstrating the viability and validity of PAAP and its teaching methods, and thereby providing a proven track record to support expansion into other countries.

The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project is based upon the following assumptions:

  1. PAAP is a training program, i.e., it does not provide direct treatment. By training local healthcare providers, PAAP empowers communities to help themselves, insuring that access to treatment is greatly increased.
  2. Acupuncture works alongside conventional treatment modalities, never supplanting them. So, in addition to aiding in reducing pain and suffering, improving quality of life, and helping to increase a sense of hope, the treatments reduce any side effects from the pharmaceuticals, such as the ARVs and anti-malarials. Thus, acupuncture improves compliance to medical regimens.
  3. Acupuncture treatments can act as a gateway to other conventional treatments, in that the acupuncture can provide immediate results that reinforce, when necessary, continued visits to hospitals and clinics.
  4. Because acupuncture, when provided by those trained by PAAP, is free, the treatments are often accessible to those in areas frequently underserved or forgotten. In this case, though not a substitute for ARVs, antibiotics, and/or anti-malarials, acupuncture can provide symptom relief to those who would otherwise continue to suffer without any treatment.

In December, 2006, PAAP began its Fifth Training Sequence in Ibanda, Uganda, training 34 nurses, midwives, and nurse midwives. The group of Trainers consisted of six volunteer acupuncturists who converged from all across the United States.

The group of Trainees was divided into two, one to work at the Ibanda Hospital and the other at the Ruhoko Health Centre, each group taught and supervised by three Trainers. The first day focused on teaching the Trainees how to navigate through the PAAP Training Manual and thereby learn how to locate the acupuncture points employed in each treatment protocol. Early in the day, the Trainees were taught how to safely and painlessly insert an acupuncture needle. (Although all the Trainees were health-care practitioners, the importance of clean-needle technique and Universal Precautions were stressed daily.) Over the course of the week, additional skills, such as gwa sha, cupping, and moxabustion, were also taught.

Although no one among the Trainees had any prior exposure to acupuncture and Chinese medicine, they learned quickly and readily embraced this new treatment modality.

After the first day, most of the remaining time was spent learning by treating patients. During the training, 348 patients, ranging from 6 to 104 years old, received treatments. Of these, there were approximately three times as many women as men. Forty-eight were known to be HIV positive, while 233 had never been tested. (This fact is particularly distressing, as it is known that, because of a change in sex practices and an increase in sexual interchanges, the prevalence of HIV infection is increasing in this area of Uganda.) Five were suffering from TB and 25 had tested positive for malaria.

Almost all of the patients in Ibanda who came to be treated complained of pain in various forms, such as headache, epigastric pain, backache, and neck pain. It was not uncommon for a patient, both young and old, to complain of chest pain. And, many individuals suffered from extreme splenomegaly, often due to inappropriately or untreated malaria.

Similar to our observations at other trainings, patients frequently experienced immediate and significant relief from their symptoms. After only one treatment, a 65-year-old woman who had come in with knee pain first gingerly stepped off the treatment table, slowly started walking on her "new knees," and then suddenly jumped up and down and danced around the clinic. An elderly man arrived for treatment unable to read due to poor vision. After one treatment, he held up a book without glasses and read from the book. An elderly woman demonstrated how, because her arm was rigid, she was unable to use her arm. With treatment, she excitedly showed how, for the first time in a long time, she was able to touch her nose. A 10-year old boy had difficulty walking due to pain on both sides of his ankles. He walked away with ease, pain free. Towards the end of the week, a man presented with severe neuropathy. He could barely bend his fingers and had limited use of his legs. After treatment, he was able to make a fist and bend his leg so his heel touched his buttock.

Because the Trainees provided so many successful treatments, at both the hospital and the health centre, the number of individuals lining up for acupuncture increased each day. People traveled for miles to receive treatment and patiently waited until it was their turn. At the end of the training, when still there remained many people waiting to be treated; Trainers and Trainees participated in what has become known as “Mass Acupuncture.” Patients sit in chairs and the edges of the treatment tables and receive simple treatments, often including the NADA auricular protocol and a few points to address their main complaints. Although the treatments are quite simple, even these often lead to a reduction in symptoms.

At the end of the training, PAAP is able to provide all of the Trainees with enough acupuncture needles, cups, and moxa poles to be able to begin to provide treatments in their hospitals and health centres. Between trainings, Trainees are able to communicate and receive support through email and cell phone text messaging. In addition, PAAP’s local Ugandan coordinator serves to ensure that all the Trainees are able to maintain an adequate supply of needles.

In April, another group of six licensed acupuncturists returned to Ibanda to provide the first of two enrichment trainings. During this time the Trainees received further support and were also introduced to the process of making simple differential diagnoses. During this training, the Trainees provided over 800 treatments. PAAP hopes to return to Ibanda the end of July to continue in their education.

The PAAP trainings serve to empower those we train. The Trainees frequently mention how gratifying it is to see their patients change so quickly and so dramatically. This, they say, is not usually what occurs when they dole out “tablets.” With the acupuncture, the patients often return repeatedly and enthusiastically, wanting additional problems treated and often bringing other friends and family members so they too can be treated. With medicines, the Trainees often speak of noncompliance. And so, the acupuncture can serve as a gateway to a more holistic and full approach to treating their ailments.

PAAP is planning on continuing to expand within Uganda and to develop programs in other African countries, such as Malawi (December 2007), Kenya, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. PAAP has also been invited to a community in Nepal, where trainings are planned to begin this July.

The PanAfrican Acupuncture Project is always looking for acupuncturists to join as Trainers, and it continues to rely on individuals for their generous financial support and donations of supplies. To donate or for more information, please visit the web site (www.panafricanacupuncture.org) or email Richard Mandell, founder and director, at RMandell@panafricanacupuncture.org.

Tai Sophia Sponsoring James Duke, Ph.D.

Join noted herbalist James Duke, Ph.D, for an Extraordinary 9-Day August Journey to Costa Rica

Laurel, MD, June 21, 2007 – If you’re interested in experiencing the trip of a lifetime, Tai Sophia Institute is inviting you on an exceptional visit to the rainforests of Costa Rica in the company of one of the world’s leading experts on herbal medicines. You’ll discover an exciting array of wildlife, learn about the medicinal plants in the region, meet a shaman, and spend time with local people as well as the fabulous group of travelers that join you on this incredible journey.

Travel by boat through Tortuguero National Park, where you can see monkeys, sloths, iguanas, parrots, toucans and other exotic inhabitants of the tropical rainforest.

Visit Luna Nueva, New Chapter’s version of paradise, where it is always warm, where colorful waves of birds and butterflies brighten the sky, and the rumble of the nearby Arenal volcano, gently erupting daily, serenades inviting thermal pools where you can rest and rejuvenate.

Discover Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in the Tilaran Mountains, with its six different ecological communities are to be found. Along the trails, you’ll encounter some of over 2,000 plant species, more than 320 species of birds and 100 species of mammals.

Rainforests are the living pharmacies of our planet, stocked by Mother Earth with a host of the world’s most important medicinal herbs, many of which are now endangered. Travelers on this exciting expedition will visit one of the world’s most remarkable organic farms and learn how new methods of sustainability are being used.

The trip takes place August 11 – 19, and includes accommodations, three meals a day in Costa Rica, naturalist guides and land transportation. Prices based on two people sharing a room start at $2,294. Airfare is additional.

Space is limited, and a deposit of $600 per person is required for enrollment.

For more information please contact:
Robyn Urbach, M.S., Associate Director, Herbal Medicine Program
Tai Sophia Institute, 7750 Montpelier Rd., Laurel, MD 20723
rurbach@tai.edu
410-888-9048 ext. 6665

About James A. Duke, PhD
James A. "Jim" Duke, PhD, served as an Economic Botanist with the USDA for 32 years. Now Jim spends time as a Distinguished Lecturer in the Master of Science in Herbal Medicine program at Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, MD. In addition to teaching he continues his work of compiling data on medicinal plants and updating several of his books. He is refining his phytomedicinal database (www.ars-grin.gov/duke/) still maintained at the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland.

Fluent in Spanish, Duke has studied and lectured widely, concentrating on tropical ecology, medical botany, and crop diversification. Widely traveled, Duke "cut his tropical eye teeth" in Panama, where he was resident from 1966-68. While working on an encyclopedia of economic plants, he collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) on both their AIDS and cancer-screening programs and later their Designer Food Program (to prevent cancer). His data bases on the ecology, nutritional content, folk medicinal uses and chemical constituents of economic plants are being widely utilized.

Dr. Duke offers a unique and intimate view of ecology, herbalism and experience in working with shamans of Latin America. He has traveled extensively to tropical rainforests, and has lectured to many groups who have traveled with him. Jim serves as a board member and advisor to many organizations that are involved in herbal medicines. Among the awards bestowed upon Dr. Duke over the years are his graduating Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and his being elected distinguished alumnus some 50 years later, in 2001. In between he received the Rachael Carson Conservation Award for conservation via the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) in 1998, the American Herbalists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, in August 1999, recognition in July 2000 by the Society of Economic Botany as a Distinguished Economic Botanist, and, in spring of 2001, he was inducted into the Natural Health Hall of Fame. In June of 2004, he received an Honorary Degree of Master of Science in Herbal Medicine from Tai Sophia Institute.

About Tai Sophia Institute
Tai Sophia Institute, based in Laurel, Maryland, was named 2006 Business of the Year by the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. Founded in 1975 as a small healing arts clinic, the Institute has grown to become a preeminent academic institution for wellness-based education with current enrollment topping 375 students. Its nearly 1,000 alumni actively practice acupuncture, herbal medicine and other healing arts around the country. It was the first school in the country to have an accredited acupuncture program and the first school in the country to offer a master’s degree in herbal medicine.

In addition to its degree programs the Institute provides a variety of wellness-based community education programs. The Institute’s faculty and staff donate more than 10,000 community service hours to a variety of projects and its health and wellness clinics provide 10,000 treatments a year. Faculty and staff also regularly speak to professional groups and area students on wellness-related topics.

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

Invited Voices: The Legacy of NIH NCCAM Director Stephen Straus, MD (1947- 2007)
If one were to chose the single individual who has had the most significant influence on the evolution of the complementary and integrative medicine dialogue over the past decade, one would be hard pressed to top that of Stephen Straus, MD. Straus, who was selected to direct the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine when it was founded, had a profound impact on how roughly $700-million of NIH funds were spent. Straus died on May 14, 2007 following a multi-year battle with brain cancer. The Integrator invited some who knew Straus to share reflections on the man, and his tenure with NCCAM. Here is a sampling from Brian Berman, MD, Susan Folkman, PhD, Carlo Calabrese, ND, MPH, Adi Haramati, PhD, Ted Kaptchuk, OMD, Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH and, from across the Atlantic, George Lewith, MD, PhD. More …

Your Comments: Do the CPT and ICD Codes Fit with Integrative/Naturopathic Practices - Drs. May and Milliman Play "Stump the Chump"
Can integrative medical practices be appropriately reflected and billed using the American Medical Association's CPT codes and the ICD diagnostic codes? Or is whole-person care bastardized by jamming it into that system? This Your Comments article is a thoughtful exchange between two professionals with significant experience in 3rd party payment. Among the commentators is Bruce Milliman, ND, a member of an advisory panel to the AMA's CPT coding committee. Milliman asserts that a good deal of whole person practice can fit the CPT/ICD structure. He invited others to challenge him, saying "stump the chump." Robert May, ND, who spent a good deal of the last decade as an executive working in complementary medicine managed care, decided to take Milliman up on the challenge. I sent May's comments to Milliman for his responses. Was the chump stumped? More …

Your Comments: Integrator FDA Report Stimulates Huge Array of Links, Thanks, Blasts and Queries
The Integrator Special Report on the FDA's Guidance for the Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine stimulated more response than any other Integrator article thus far. Response ranged from thanks to reprimand. Some blasted the Integrator for allowing the FDA's Phillip Chao to speak. Others credited the Integrator with bringing a modicum of reason to a hugely politicized and polarized environment. Here is a sampling of comments. I share these with Integrator readers in part to show the wildness of response, and also to bask briefly in the satisfaction of having provided a service. Thanks to the Integrator sponsors and contributors who make the work possible. More …

Visibility: Donna Karan Brings Glamour to Integrative Medicine, Supplements Suffer in the Media, Chiropractic Campaign
Is there a healing power in glamour? Donna Karan is creating a huge New York City event which brings together cultural and integrative medicine luminaries and will test a postulate about whether committed glitz can rocket the integrative health movement. Who wouldn't want to be hanging out with Susan Sarandon, Laurie Anderson, Annie Liebowitz and Uma Thurman? But alas, while integrative medicine may be arriving as a glamour do, the distinct CAM disciplines appear to remain a glamour don't ... Meantime, in more familiar trenches, an analysis by the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance shows a negative trend in media reports on supplements ... The high-end PR campaign of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress - which successfully brought the ICA and ACA into one tent - moves forward with a little unifying glitz of its own, former Stanford University gymnast and Ms. Fitness USA Sara Harding. More …

The Business Case for Hospital Integration: Some Perspectives from the 5th Annual AHA/Health Forum Conference
The attendance at the Health Forum/American Hospital Association's annual conference, Integrative Medicine for Healthcare Organizations, jumped 58% this year, from 160 to 260. These attended a meeting which recognized that mission alone can only move hospital integration of complementary and alternative services so far. What is needed is a business case to support the integration. This year Health Forum partnered with the Samueli Institute, which has establishing the business case as a core goal. Here are some perspectives on money and integration which came forward at the meeting ... including a health system CEO's perspective that we may need a government mandate. More …

The Integrator is made possible through sponsorships from NCMIC, Triad Healthcare, Standard Process, Alternative Medicine Integration Group, Inner Harmony Group and individuals who voluntarily contribute.

CLINICIANS WILL DISCUSS CURRENT STATE OF PAIN MANAGEMENT AT AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PAIN MANAGEMENT ANNUAL MEETING

More than 85 Scientific Presentations by Experts in the Field, 65 Poster Presentations, and Symposia

Interdisciplinary pain management clinicians from throughout the nation will gather at the American Academy of Pain Management’s 18th Annual Clinical Meeting, September 27-30, 2007, at the Red Rock Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Featuring world-renowned speakers, this meeting will bring together clinicians from a wide variety of disciplines and medical traditions to learn about current diagnostic methods, treatment strategies, and research in pain management. The meeting will include presentations on the pharmacological management of pain, behavioral therapies, psychosocial aspects of pain, and pharmaceutical therapies. Attendees can earn as many as 28 continuing education (CE/CME) credits.

“We know that most chronic pain is best managed through an interdisciplinary approach,” said Lennie Duensing, MEd, Executive Director of the American Academy of Pain Management. “This is an unusual meeting—in fact, it’s the only meeting in which both allopathic and complementary and alternative clinicians learn together and network to discover ways to provide quality care for people with chronic pain.”

Each year, the Academy gives special awards to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the field of pain management. This year, the recipients will also be presenting keynote addresses. A few include:

Clinicians and healthcare professionals who are interested in attending the meeting should register at www.aapainmanage.org or call (209) 533-9744. Early registration for $375 is available before July 16. Registration is also available at the meeting for $475. Information on continuing education credits for those who attend the meeting is also available on the Academy website.

Chronic pain, today’s number one public health problem, affects approximately 50 million Americans. Most pain is untreated or under-treated, particularly among African Americans and Hispanics.

The American Academy of Pain Management is a non-profit organization that serves a broad range of clinicians who treat people with pain. Founded in 1988, the Academy has approximately 5,300 members and is the largest interdisciplinary pain organization in the United States. The Academy believes that effective pain management can be achieved through cooperation, shared knowledge, and the collective wisdom of healthcare professionals from many disciplines.

Trudy McAlister Scholarship Fund

In the fall of 2005 Trudy McAlister received the Patient of the Year Award from the AAOM for her philanthropic work. Earlier that year Mrs. McAlister made generous contributions that led to the establishment of a scholarship fund for students of Oriental medicine. Trudy also endowed the fund with a percentage from her final estate.

In May of 2007 the Trudy McAlister Fund completed the final legal organization establishing it as a non-profit charitable corporation. Trudy has already contributed thousands of dollars to the fund. In March of 2007 another grateful acupuncture patient by the name of Mary Hecht included the Trudy McAlister Fund as a recipient of a large portion of her estate. Donations to the Trudy McAlister Fund are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

The East West College of Natural Medicine, in Sarasota, Florida, has recently made a large donation to the scholarship fund. This is the first college to contribute to the TM Fund.

This Fund is established to support students in the field who show promise of making significant contributions to clinical practice and/or to the understanding of the role of traditional Oriental medicine in a modern context. The scholarships are divided into two categories:

  1. Basic support scholarships for students who have completed at least one full academic year of their professional training and who, in the opinion of both their faculty and the advisors of the Fund, show unusual promise in the practice of this medicine.
  2. Support for students who have entered the last phases of their clinical training or who have undertaken post-graduate studies in Oriental medicine and who are, in the opinion of their faculty and the fund advisors, most likely to:
    1. Contribute to the successful integration of OM into modern American medicine, and
    2. Insure that such integration preserves the historical and classic character, philosophy and practice of OM as it is integrated into this modern context.

Applications will soon be available online at www.triskeles.org. Applications will also be sent to each ACAOM accredited school. The fund will allow each school to recommend a maximum of 3 students for scholarships. Only students fully matriculated in schools accredited by ACAOM will qualify. Gifts will be made to the school(s) for the winning eligible recipient(s).

The Fund has an Advisory Committee: Gene Bruno and William Prensky are the permanent advisors. Doreen Chen, Martin Herbkersman, and Pamela Lee are the term advisors. These advisors will make the recommendations to the Triskeles Foundation for final approval of scholarships. The Triskeles Foundation oversees the Fund's assets.

The Advisors encourage individuals and organizations to make donations to the Fund.

All donations should be sent to:

The Tiskeles Foundation - Trudy McAlister Fund
c/o The Triskeles Foundation
224 Nantmeal Rd.
Glenmoore, PA 19343

For more information about the Trudy McAlister Fund contact Gene Bruno at acudoc27@aol.com

In closing, a 25th anniversary is a remarkable juncture in the road for our medicine in the US. If you are someone that shares in this event each and every year, this year will touch your soul and the way you view your practice and the future of this medicine in ways that you can't imagine. If you have never joined us before we cannot offer a more compelling reason for making this event a priority in your life. Rejoice, Commemorate, Honor and Celebrate our past, our present, and the unlimited future of the AAAOM that lies before us! See you this October (18-22) in Portland!

Sincerely,


Rebekah Christensen,
Executive Director