ICIM Blog

ICIM’s Integrative Office Staff Training Program, Oct 3-4, 2008, Sheraton Station Square Hotel, Pittsburgh, PA

For those who work in an integrative medical office, special knowledge and skills are needed. All employees need to understand the basic concepts of integrative medicine, and what makes our treatments unique. Patient advocacy, legal concerns and even marketing are affected by the wider field of integrative medicine. This program is appropriate for front desk workers, techs, nurses and office managers. Staff will learn to:

1. Interact with patients in healing, holistic ways
2. Be able to appropriately describe and comprehend common integrative therapies
3. Protect your office from legal concerns
4. Guide patients facing a healing crisis in stress reduction techniques
5. Become "chemical detectives," identify harmful and useful ingredients in products
6. Join with the main congress to benefit from a wide array of speakers on Food and Nutrition, including Paul Saunders ND, Mark Hyman MD, Mark Housten MD, Tanya Edwards MD, and Doug Graphm DC

Paul Saunders ND Food and Nutrition; An Introduction Oct 3, 8-9am

Mark Hyman MD Food as Healer, Food as Slayer; The Past, Present and Future of Food and Humans Oct 3, 9-10:15am

Patti McCormick RN, PhD NeuroLinguistic Programing; Phone Skills and Patient Advocacy Oct 3, 10:45am-12:15pm

Robert Angus ND Integrative Medicine Treatment Overview Oct 3, 2-3:45pm

Stan Mann MSW The Health of the Office; Marketing for Integrative Medicine Oct 3, 4:30-5:30pm

Mark Housten MD High Blood Pressure Oct 4, 8-9am

Tanya Edwards MD Diet and Inflammation Oct 4, 9:15-10:30am

Doug Grahm DC Food and Athletic Performance Oct 4, 11:15-12:30pm

Coleen Maulfair Detoxification and De-mystification of Chemical and Natural Products Oct 4, 2:30-3:30pm

Al Augstine Esq Legal Issues in the Integrative Medical Office Oct 4, 3:30-4:30pm

Wendy Chappell MBA Surviving the "Diet" and Encouraging Patients Through Stress Management Oct 4, 4:30-5:30pm

* times and speakers are subject to change without notice
** All Staff ("Affiliates") are welcome to participate in the Main Congress through Sunday's activities at no extra charge.
For registration, please use the basic conference registration form, but check the box entitled "Integrative Office Staff Training Program" in the middle section. The cost is $300 for the first staff registered from an integrative office. After that each additional staff person takes another $50 discount. Please use a separate form for each person registering. CEUs will be available through the Institute of Holistic Leadership.

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Food and Nutrition Has Huge Impact at ICIM Meeting

Never before has there been such a dynamic meeting on the impact of food and nutrition on health and performance. The International College of Integrative Medicine invites all readers and health professionals to attend their fall meeting from October 1-5, 2008 in Pittsburgh: "Getting Well with Food and Nutrition."

Sixteen world-class speakers will get to the core of the impact food can have on a wide variety of diseases, both positive and negative. Some of the highlights include

Mark Hyman MD on Food as both Healer and Slayer,

Stephen Holt MD on Digestive Health,

Sylvie Beljanski on Food and Detoxification,

Tanya Edwards MD on Diet and Inflammation,

Mark Housten MD on Food and Hypertension, and

Doug Graham DC on Athletic Performance.

New concepts on Pain Control, Mold Devastation, Weight Loss, Celiac Disease, Autism, and Communicating with the Body are also on the agenda. Many excellent exhibitors support this program.

Two lead-in workshops are offered: Hyperbaric Oxygen and the first advanced training in Metal Toxicology for experienced physicians.

ICIM is a professional association primarily of MD’s and DO’s but all health professionals that work with nutritional therapies are welcome to attend. A truly integrative approach will be emphasized, along with treatments you can put to use in the office on Monday morning. For details on the meeting, go to www.integrativemedicineconference.com.

-L. Terry Chappell MD

ICIM President

contact:

Wendy Chappell - Executive Director
International College of Integrative Medicine

wendy@icimed.com
ph. 419-358-0273
fax 610-680-3847
"Seeking Global Advances In Healthcare"

August X, 2008

The Honorable Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration
Parklawn Building
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland “20857”

Dear Commissioner von Eschenbach:

I prescribe hormones containing estriol and am very concerned about the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called “abbreviated” Investigational New Drug (IND) application for estriol. This process, along with the FDA’s requirement that doctors use an Investigational Review Board, will create an incredibly burdensome and costly process that, if enforced, will effectively ban most physicians from prescribing a medication we have determined to be best for our patients.

The IND also requires the use of an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB process alone is so onerous that it will undoubtably serve as a deterrent to physicians prescribing estriol for their symptomatic patients.

My foremost concern is for my patients who rely on hormones containing estriol to relieve the symptoms of menopause. Quite frankly, FDA’s new policy threatens their access to this important medication. This could force them off of treatment their doctors have deemed necessary, and would either deny them treatment or subject them to the unnecessary expense and inconvenience of a new treatment regime.

I strongly believe that requiring an IND is unjustified. Millions of women have been prescribed estriol and have used it safely for decades. I do not believe FDA’s concerns and subsequent policy shift are medically justifiable, and your agency has not documented the safety issues that would warrant such an extreme action.

That said, I have concerns with FDA’s IND scheme and am concerned that even in the FDA’s modified form the process is prohibitively complicated, onerous and costly. Form 1571 remains a significant component of the IND process. As a result, I have outlined my primary concerns with the form and with the overall process below.

First, the IND places a significant financial burden on physicians, most notably by requiring us to submit our applications to an Institutional Review Boards (IRB). Submitting necessary documentation and contracting for a private IRB can easily cost between $10,000 and $25,000 and can take months. While this would be prohibitive for almost all doctors, its affect in small towns and rural areas would be especially harsh. I ask the FDA to waive this requirement.

Second, several portions of Form 1571 are inapplicable to physicians prescribing estriol. We understand that FDA is not requiring physicians to complete every line of 1571, but without greater guidance up-front from FDA, physicians will have to devote considerable resources to wade through these applications and requirements, which takes away from the time that we should be spending with patients. If FDA intends to waive elements of Form 1571, it should be more explicit. I ask FDA to clarify which elements are required and which are not so that we can determine whether the abbreviated process is feasible. At this point, it is impossible to tell.

Third, I am concerned that my treatment of patients would be disrupted if I had to wait for 30 days after filing an IND before I could prescribe hormones containing estriol. The FDA should formally waive the 30-day waiting period to ensure that patients can continue to receive uninterrupted treatment.

Fourth, IRB recordkeeping burdens on physicians are enormous. We frankly do not have the time to devote to these requirements, and would have to either hire additional administrative staff or reduce the time we spend treating patients. This only works to increase the cost of health care.

The right of a woman to choose treatments in consultation with her physician is a fundamental right and must be protected. Similarly, we must also preserve the right of physicians to practice medicine and prescribe treatments without unnecessary government interference.

Many physicians have been prescribing estriol to treat women for decades. I am distressed and confused that FDA has taken such a hard line against prescription of this hormone—prescribed safely for decades with no reports of adverse effects—with so little medical justification. FDA has not produced any evidence that estriol poses a danger to patients and, absent that, its restrictions are at best inappropriate and at worst harmful to patients.

It would be most appropriate for FDA to retract this policy altogether. However, if FDA is going to pursue an IND process for estriol, it is imperative that you to address the aforementioned concerns.

Sincerely,

Submitted by Jonathan Wright MD:

Beginning last year, the FDA started making it more difficult for citizens to communicate with them. It is no longer possible to communicate by e-mail, the most convenient method for many citizens. As of now there are only two “FDA-approved” ways to communicate with them: fax or mail a letter. E-mails are not “FDA-approved!”

The most effective way to communicate with the FDA about estriol and BHRT is to use an the American Association for Health Freedom’s website “alert” facility to simultaneously contact FDA, your US Senators, and your US Representative. It includes Jonathan Wright's sample letter that—with your approval—will be faxed directly to Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA Commissioner. Physicians using this “alert” facility are also welcomed to customize the sample letter (which is based on input from knowledgeable sources) or copy and paste their own letter.

MESSAGES SENT THROUGH THE AAHF WEBSITE ALERT FACILITY WILL AUTOMATICALLY BE COPIED TO YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND SENATOR. NO SEPARATE ACTION IS REQUIRED! The address of the AAHF website alert is http://ga4.org/campaign/estriol_IND.

Doctors who prefer not to use the AAHF alert system can fax their letters to the FDA at fax #301-443-3100 or mail to:

The Honorable Andrew C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration
Parklawn Building
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland “20857”

You may also enter by using the main AAHF web address which is www.healthfreedom.net.

Submitted by American Association of Health Freedom:

To no surprise to AAHF, as more and more consumers are embracing integrative medicine, so are practitioners. According to a recent survey by Jackson & Coker, a significant number of healthcare providers are using some form of integrative medicine to enhance their own health and well-being, or they have introduced certain facets of alternative medicine into their patient care.

The survey, entitled “Healthcare Providers' Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine,” was sent during June to thousands of physicians and other health professionals throughout the United States, with nearly 300 individuals responding.

The survey queried respondents as to what heath measures they personally hope to achieve in using some form of CAM. The results were as follows:

Stress relief 19.0%
Improve general health 15.6%
Pain management 13.3%
Improve mental alertness 11.4%
Weight reduction / control 9.3%
Reduce hypertension 8.2%
Overcome insomnia 7.8%
Lower cholesterol 5.9%
Control diabetes 3.5%
The survey pointed out, interestingly, that only a small number of doctors (15%) believe that as complementary and alternative medicine becomes more acceptable within the healthcare field, more insurers will provide approved reimbursement. Sixty-two percent felt it was either "not too likely" or "probably unlikely" that insurance coverage will substantially increase in the foreseeable future.

Most interestingly, the survey showed one of the areas that needs more focus – the education of integrative medicine by practitioners. The health practitioners surveyed learned about complementary and alternative medicine through various means: formal medical training (13%), seminars on holistic medicine (21%), and self-teaching or interaction with colleagues (25%). The types of alternative modalities, therapies, and treatments with which health providers were most familiar included: herbal medicine, massage therapy and reflexology, yoga and meditation, chiropractic treatment, biofeedback, and acupuncture. Other approaches with which they were less familiar included: hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, Tai Chi, and Ayurvetic medicine.

These findings are just one of the reasons why respected organizations that educate physicians and other health care professionals on the latest findings and emerging procedures in integrative medicine practitioners are so important. In fact, the Integrative Medical Consortium is a collaborative alliance of CAM associations is committed to advancing integrative medicine for the well-being of patients worldwide and includes American College for Advancement in Medicine, American Academy of Environmental Medicine, American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, American Holistic Medical Association, and International College of Integrative Medicine.

With three decades of experience, Jackson & Coker is a prominent physician-staffing firm headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.