Stamford, CT - The Bravewell Collaborative recently released Integrative Medicine in America: How Integrative Medicine Is Being Practiced in Clinical Centers Across the United States, a study of the patient populations and health conditions most commonly treated with integrative strategies. In a survey of U.S. integrative medicine centers, 75 percent reported success using integrative practices to treat chronic pain and more than half reported positive results for gastrointestinal conditions, depression and anxiety, cancer and chronic stress.
“With chronic health issues costing the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion a year, it’s essential to find the most effective ways to treat and prevent the most prevalent conditions,” said Donald Abrams, MD, co-author of the report and professor of clinical medicine at the University of California San Francisco. “This report demonstrates how an integrative approach is being used to improve patient outcomes.”
Integrative medicine is an approach that puts the patient at the center of care and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that affect health. Employing a personalized strategy that considers the patient's unique conditions, needs and circumstances, integrative medicine uses the most appropriate interventions from an array of scientific disciplines to heal illness and disease and help people regain and maintain optimal health.
Twenty-nine integrative medicine centers, including, Stamford Hospital’s Center for Integrative Medicine & Wellness, were surveyed by The Bravewell Collaborative. All participating centers were affiliated with hospitals, health systems and/or medical and nursing schools. Patient services include adult care (100% of those surveyed), geriatric care (97%), adolescent care (86%), OB-GYN care (72%), pediatric care (62%) and end-of-life care (66%). Findings from the report, which evaluated trends in prevention and wellness, patient outcomes, emerging norms of care and reimbursement, suggest that the practice of integrative medicine offers promise for increasing the effectiveness of care and improving people’s health.
The Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness at Stamford Hospital offers a consultation service that complements standard care with customized treatments that are guided by scientific evidence, safety, and patient preferences. A wide variety of conditions are treated by the Center’s Physicians and Nurse Practitioner who specialize in pain management, nutritional aspects of health, and stress reduction. Treatments at the Center include lifestyle coaching; acupressure; acupuncture; nutritional and supplement consultation; non-opioid pain medication consultation; and mind-body techniques such as guided imagery, mindfulness meditation, hypnotism, and Reiki.
The interventions prescribed most frequently by practitioners in the study, usually in combination, were: food/nutrition, supplements, yoga, meditation, traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture, massage and pharmaceuticals.
“This report illustrates the great potential of integrative medicine to help prevent illness and foster lifelong health,” explained Christy Mack, President of The Bravewell Collaborative. “These approaches not only treat the whole person but also empower individuals to be active participants in their health care.”
Participating Integrative Medicine Centers:
- Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine
- Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
- Cancer Treatment Centers of America
- The Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Colorado
- Center for Life University of New Mexico
- Cleveland Clinic Center for Integrative Medicine
- Continuum Center for Health and Healing
- Duke Integrative Medicine
- 11th Street Family Services of Drexel University
- GW Center for Integrative Medicine
- Greenwich Hospital Integrative Medicine Program
- Institute for Health & Health at California Pacific Medical Center
- Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine
- Marino Center for Integrative Health
- University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine
- Integrative Medicine Program, Mayo Clinic
- Integrative Medicine Center at MD Anderson Anderson Cancer Center
- Northwestern Integrative Medicine
- OSU Center for Integrative Medicine
- UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
- Osher Clinical Center
- Penny George Institute for Health and Healing
- Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine
- Simms-Mann Health and Wellness Center at Venice Family Clinic
- Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness at Stamford Hospital
- Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine
- Susan Samueli Center of Integrative Medicine
- University of Wisconsin Integrative Medicine
- Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Health
