Integrative Medicine Summit Washington DC
Feb. 25-27, 2009

Must see videos - don't miss. View online for FREE.

Dr. Dean Ornish's video is a must. He got standing ovations. Don't miss it. (Click a video to watch)

The Integrative Medicine Summit was organized by the Institute of Health, several Integrative Medicine departments at Duke, Harvard and other Universities supported and financed by the Bravewell Collaborative (philanthropists).

This has been an amazing experience. 600 Politicians, Senators, National Institute of Health, IOM, University Professors, Doctors, Naturopaths, TCM, Homeopaths and other practitioners coming together.

The reason why I went there was mainly for National Yoga Month, to get large organizations, insurance companies and government more involved. But the more I listened and talked to people the more I saw how timely and excellent META-Medicine fits into the current developments and “Zeitgeist”.

Some highlights and impressions:

• Major push in US towards an Integrative Medicine model
• Understanding that health care needs to change, is not affordable anymore.
• All parties (business, health insurance, health professions, patients) seem to agree.
• President Obama has promised to reform health care with a major focus on prevention
• Over the next 6 weeks the new health reform will take shape and it the plea from the organizers was to become active, talk to local senators, politicians and push for an integrative health care model.
• All CAM organizations were asked to join the campaign and create public awareness and a strong push for change.
• Dean Ornish was by far the best speaker (before he had to rush to the Capitol for a Senate hearing to testify about how health care can be improved). His points was that he and many other renowned researchers have done plenty of high quality studies on how heart disease, diabetes, cancer can be reversed up to 70% by lifestyle changes (biopsychosocial, for example plant based diet, yoga, meditation and other lifestyle changes … which are basically what we including in our therapy plans, right) and that it is time to put this knowledge into action.
• Prevention on a national scale from kids to adults is necessary and will increase quality of life and health care costs.
• One point often mentioned was that because of the current financial crisis there is a willingness to look at new options especially ones that bring health care cost down.
• I talked to Dean Ornish, Memeth Oz (Oprah), James Gordon (white house commission for CAM), Larry Dossey and many other profs, doctors, therapists especially from Universities. Seems most universities have or starting Integrative Medicine Center already. They are not fully integrated yet into the traditional main complex but there is increased openness to do so.
• Senator Harkin who was instrumental in founding the US Government NCCAM National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was extremely supportive and he will do anything in his power to create an Integrative Health Care System with this upcoming health reform.
• He also confirmed that the intent is to rename NCCAM to National Center for Integrative Health Care (not medicine but health… which was a big part of the discussions. Focus on Health, not disease or medicine).
• United Health one of the biggest US health insurance companies intend to move from a service reimbursement (per therapy.. which means the more you therapy the more money you make…) to a solution/results oriented reimbursement model (which focuses on quality, e.g. being or creating health is rewarded, not being sick the way it is now)
• Several discussions were about biopsychosocial model and Integrative Health Coaches.
• It seems there are only 1 or 2 Integrative Medicine Health Coach Certifications available in US right now
• Whenever I talked to people about our META-Medicine model, they were amazed.
• It seems the META-Medicine Integrative Health Coach Training is one of the few (if not only ...) to offer a comprehensive biopsychosocial diagnostics model and health coach certification.

Please forward this link to your friends and network. It is very important that we spread the message and let health professionals and patients know about the power and future of Integrative Medicine.

Thank you.

Johannes