I think it will also include nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, etc. That’s why I alluded to the wide umbrella of our coalition. This will include disciplines that heretofore have not been included. Another example would be nurse anesthetists. As I see it, this is an attempt to break down the hierarchical structure and be more egalitarian in the way we promote healthcare delivery in the United States.

You sound at least guardedly optimistic that good changes are on the way.

Well, when you live a guardedly optimistic life, yes. I feel that this is a time when we are poised to make major changes in the way we perceive and deliver healthcare. I feel that there is a lot of education that needs to be given to the public. Though many of the population avail themselves of these various techniques, I don’t think there is a broad enough awareness. I also don’t know of a good source for them to get, if you will, integrated education.

How might health professions more fully incorporate integrative concepts and approaches into the training of their future practitioners?

With regard to medical education, you may be aware of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. Approximately 50 medical schools are part of that. It’s been growing over the past five years. They have regular meetings, and if you look at their website, there’s a model curriculum that they’ve put out. I feel the movement will happen, perhaps slower than I would like, but in a catalyzed fashion which will hopefully lead to major change. The thing I’m concerned about is that with it being housed within the academic medical community, hopefully this will not lead to the furtherance of a hierarchical system. That remains to be seen.

Are there other areas that you are passionate about, or that you are focused on, that you’d like to mention?

Yes. Around the time that I was working with American WholeHealth, I became medical director of a group called Integrative Medicine Communications. That was a Boston-based print and e-publishing company focused on integrative healthcare. We published the German Kommission E monographs [on herbal practice], and I edited a newsletter called the Integrative Medicine Consult that went out to thousands of conventional practitioners. I feel that the cornerstone, and what sways it, is really sophisticated, well-delivered education, both at the professional and the lay level. I really feel that this type of education is most important. This education needs to start in the early years of health profession education. Young individuals need to be taught an integrative philosophy as they go forward. I think that will lead to a major shift in the future practice of both medicine and all other forms of health care.

What hopeful signs do you see now that this is happening?

I’ve done a lot of lecturing at Georgetown University, and I’m lecturing now at the University of Colorado. I’ve lectured at different schools throughout the country, and what I’m seeing is that the students are very much interested in this approach. They’re hungering for more information. I’m also on the editorial review panel of the American College of Physicians, which has a CAM section in what’s called the Pier Resource for the College. Though it’s early, this is starting to gain momentum as far as having a place for physicians to go to get well-qualified information. Because even those MDs who wish to explore, don’t have a well-defined, well-recognized source to go to with a high confidence level.

Are there certain markers that, if achieved in the next five or ten years, would indicate to you that this new, more integrative model is really taking hold? Are there certain recognizable goals we can look for?

What we are seeing at the University of Colorado, at Jefferson University in Philadelphia, at hospitals in New York, Stanford, the University of Arizona and elsewhere, are integrative medicine centers that are either aligned with the hospital administration, or are being integrated and run by the departments of medicine. I do see a coalescence just starting to develop, that I think will spread with time. Some of the movement to incorporate integrative healthcare in these facilities, and hundreds of hospitals at this point, is the fact that it’s marketing what its perceptions are of the consumers’ wishes. In some hospitals, they are allowing chiropractors, acupuncturists, to come and deliver care to inpatients. This is the type of movement that I feel will take hold, and can only grow. Hopefully, that’s not just optimistic but realistic.

Daniel Redwood, DC, the interviewer, is a Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College–Kansas City, and Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today and The Daily HIT.