Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Integrative medicine proposed to Congress
Massachusetts attorney Thomas M. Kiley, http://www.tomkileylaw.com, concentrates on legal issues involving health care. A recent article in the Boston Globe discusses a new initiative by the Institute of Medicine to get integrative medicine considered by Congress.
The Institute of Medicine recently had a three-day meeting to discuss integrative medicine. They feel that good health care is preventive, predictive, and personalized; whole body wellness care. According to the article, integrative medicine involves physical, lifestyle habits, and the mind-body interaction that help prevent illness and change people’s behaviors for better health care in the future. Although integrative medicine is cheaper than treating it, there is an upfront investment to keep people well.
A growing number of academic medical centers are adopting integrative medicine. At Duke, trained health coaches advise patients on a personalized health care plan that includes their doctor’s treatment. Medicare funded a Duke study of 154 middle-age people at high risk of heart disease. In 10 months, people who received health coaching were exercising 3.7 days a week, two days a week more than when they started, and had an average 10-point drop in cholesterol. This showed a drop in overall heart risk, while people who got the usual checkups did not.
Dr. Esther Sternberg of the National Institute of Mental Health says that a chronically stressed brain releases hormones and other chemicals that inhibit the immune system so it can’t fight off disease or speed healing. But regular exercise, a healthy diet, and stress-relieving techniques such as meditation or yoga help people handle the harmful effects of stress.
Dr. Donald Berwick, a Harvard health quality specialist heading the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has said that doctors should respect what patients know, as well as the healing properties of the body itself, and use lower-technology tools for healing.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), http://www.ihi.org, has a strategic initiative to help patients self-manage their healthcare. According to the IHI website, increasing evidence shows that engaged and informed patients have the best health. Self-managed healthcare involves making difficult changes in lifestyle such as losing weight or exercising more as part of a complex medical plan. Patients work with health care workers to develop this plan and they work together as a team.
Recently, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) worked with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) on a three-year, $3.75 million dollar national initiative called “New Health Partnerships: Improving Care by Engaging Patients.” The initiative is has several parts, each directed by experts from leading organizations in chronic care and patient-centered care research, including the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation at the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound Center for Health Studies, and the Institute for Family-Centered Care.
As part of the initiative, the Quality Allies Learning and Innovation Community involves twenty ambulatory care teams working with patients and family members from their own communities as partners. The healthcare industry is dealing with people living longer lives with complex, ongoing health conditions. Trying to establish self-management for chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and HIV is difficult. The IHI wants to facilitate developing new tools and approaches in care so that chronic care experts partner with patients for this self-managed care. This involves finding ways to get patients to play an active role in their own care and guide them in managing their condition every day.
