By Bonnie Horrigan
Many people worked to educate policy makers and ensure prevention and wellness became part of the national healthcare agenda. Among the most notable efforts from within the integrative medical community were:
- The Bravewell Collaborative’s sponsorship of the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public, held in February 2009, which drew national attention to the promise of integrative medicine. It ended up being the largest event ever convened by the IOM. Serving on the planning committee and faculty were Ralph Snyderman, MD (chair); Mimi Guarneri, MD; Victor Sierpina, MD; Elizabeth Goldblatt, PhD; Dean Ornish, MD; and Ester Sternberg, MD, among others.
- The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held two hearings in February 2009. The hearings were sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy with Senators Michael B. Enzi, Tom Harkin and Barbara Mikulski. During the session, Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation, testimony about the benefits of an integrative approach to care and the importance of lifestyle choices was given by Dean Ornish, MD, Mark Hyman, MD; Mehmet Oz, MD; and Andrew Weil, MD. Testifying for the Principles of Integrative Health: A Path to Health Care Reform hearings were: Cathy Baase, MD; Robert Dugan, MA; Sister Charlotte Rose Kerr, RN, MPH; James Gordon, MD; Wayne Jonas, MD; Mary Jo Kreitzer, RN, PhD; Herbert Benson, MD; Brian Berman, MD; Kathi Kemper, MD, MPH; Simon Mills; and Ron Goetzel, PhD.
- The creation and dissemination of the Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN), an effort spearheaded by Wayne Jonas, MD, President and CEO of the Samueli Institute. Created in collaboration with the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium, the Systems Wellness Advanced Team, and others, the summary document recommended the creation of a Wellness Initiative for the Nation focused on the promotion of health through lifestyle change and integrative health practices. It further recommended that WIN be a government wide, trans-agency initiative. The creation of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council and the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are a direct result of the WIN proposal and the efforts of other organizations such as Trust for America’s Health.
In all three activities, prevention and wellness were stressed. “The importance of prevention in the emerging initiatives on healthcare can be glimpsed in Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention, a report prepared by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research in 2009, “ said Larry Dossey, MD. “This report states that better eating habits and more physical activity could prevent a third of all cancers in the United States, and that smoking cessation could prevent another third. This means that a behavioral, non-drug approach to cancer prevention could eradicate two-thirds of the cancers in America.”
Dr. Dossey also noted that the recent EPIC Study (Healthy Living is the Best Revenge: Findings from the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam study, Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009: 169(15): 1335-1362) found that adherence to a four-pillar approach such as the one contained in WIN has remarkable benefits. “If the American public embraced a healthier lifestyle — which includes social integration, stress management, a balance of exercise and rest, and appropriate exposure to a clean environment including no smoking, no or moderate alcohol consumption, and not being exposed to toxic chemicals or a poor diet—93% of diabetes, 81% of heart attacks, 50% of strokes, and 36% of all cancers could be prevented.”
Next Steps
“The inclusion of the National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council, with its associated Advisory Council, as section 4001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an important step toward actualizing the philosophy of the WIN document to which so many have contributed,” said Jonas. “The Council has the potential to be a powerful voice for integrative health care in the United States given its mandates, which include providing coordination and leadership at the Federal level, developing a national strategy, and providing recommendations to the President and Congress on pressing health issues and Federal policies to achieve national wellness, health promotion and public health goals. There is also tremendous opportunity for the Council and its Advisory Council to have significant influence over the framing and execution of many other provisions of the Act — an opportunity that becomes apparent as one maps the Council to wellness and integrative health care action items across the bill.”
“The Council and its mandates are a positive first step but it will be a challenge to ensure that integrative health care is strongly represented in the Council’s proceedings. Now, vigilance and pro-activity are very important as HHS moves toward the Federal rulemaking phase,” added Jonas.
One way for health care providers can stay informed about the bill’s implementation is through the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC) Online Action Network (http://capwiz.com/ihpc/mlm/signup/). Members of the Network receive updates, are afforded opportunities to communicate directly with Congress and the Obama administration, and are asked provide critical feedback on strategy, priorities, and the direction of this work.
Another aspect of the bill, the support of comparative effectiveness research, could prove vital in getting the true benefits of an integrative approach recognized. “CER was prominent in last year’s stimulus package ($1.1 billion allocated) and important again in the health care bill passed last week,” explained Brain Berman, MD, president of the Institute for Integrative Health, ”With the move toward CER, the fields of integrative and complementary medicine now face an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate their value to support high-quality health care in the U.S.”
To this effect, the Institute for Integrative Health has organized an online symposium to discuss CER and provide input on this matter. To join the discussion or read previous sessions, go to http://www.groupjazz.com/tiih-cer/
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has oversight for implementation of the bill, has created a web site about health care reform, which is at: http://www.healthreform.gov/. Related grant notices will be posted on http://www.grants.gov/.
Posted on April 23, 2010 by Explore Journal Blog
0