The Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) and October 2015 Conference Featured in Interview with Nancy Sudak, Exec. Director
The Integrative Medicine Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together
…ACUPUNCTURE TODAY, Aug. 2015, by Bill Reddy,LAc, Dipl.Ac….The conversation is changing in the broader healthcare community with patients actually moving the discussion toward more integrative topics. Patients today want to know their options. They want forms of care that include mainstream medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, spiritual counseling, nutrition counseling, and more.
Patients don’t necessarily want to just manage symptoms, they want to live healtheir lives and are looking for the experts that can help them achieve their health goals. Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) Annual Conference and was quite impressed by the quality of lectures on topics ranging from the value of meditation, to detoxification and the microbiome. Every healthcare practitioner, including my AOM colleagues, would benefit from the AIHM’s inter-professional curriculum, and I recently reached out the AIHM Executive Director, Nancy Sudak, MD, ABIHM, to gain a clearer picture of the Academy’s history and vision and to share some information regarding this year’s conference: People, Planet, Purpose: Global Practitioners United in Health & Healing in San Diego, Oct. 25-29, 2015.
…ACUPUNCTURE TODAY: “Can you tell me a bit about the history, mission and vision/ philosophy of your organization?”
…NANCY SUDAK: “The mission of the AIHM is to transform health and medicine on a global scale. The goal of the Academy is to offer a unified voice for all health professionals interested in integrative health and medicine. We are an inter-professional organization working to prevent illness and restore health, rather than just treat disease. The Academy provides critical resources (training, fellowship program, education, advocacy, membership) to support collaboration between practitioners working to transform our disease-care model into one that serves the whole person — body, mind, spirit — and beyond to include community and planet. We also provide resources to the public. The AIHM Find-A-Provider Directory is becoming a central resource for consumers looking for holistic providers. Collaboration is at the heart of the AIHM’s mission. We evolved from an MD/DO centric entity because we believe in a team-based, heart-centered approach to health and medicine. Healthcare transformation will require unprecedented changes in our thinking about prevention and treatment strategies. Together we can do it. Beyond promoting integrative tools and the art of an holistic style of practice, we also offer a systems-oriented, broad-minded worldview and even an ecological perspective that brings meaning to clinicians as we step away from the “ill to the pill” mentality. To be in service of the integrative health agenda, we have to actually think integratively, which is much different than simply replacing drugs with a green pharmacy. The Academy is also committed to supporting clinicians who are working with underserved populations.” (Full article: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=33055)
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