February 2014 John Weeks Integrator Round-Up: Academic Medicine

by John Weeks, Publisher Editor of The Integrator Blog News & Reports U Kansas and Cleveland Chiropractic College faculty meet in joint session on painA recent edition of Health Insights Today includes a report on a new MD DC collaboration. Author Daniel

by John Weeks, Publisher/Editor of The Integrator Blog News & Reports

U Kansas and Cleveland Chiropractic College faculty meet in joint session on pain

A recent edition of Health Insights Today includes a report on a new MD-DC collaboration. Author Daniel Redwood, DC writes: "The first-ever joint meeting of University of Kansas Medical Center faculty members specializing in pain medicine, clinical and research faculty from Cleveland Chiropractic College, and practicing chiropractors from the Kansas Chiropractic Association (KCA), was held at the College in early December. It featured presentations by Kendall Payne, DC, president of the Kansas Chiropractic Association and Dawood Sayed, MD, of KU, in which these doctors described their successful collaboration on a patient with extreme facet-related pain and described the contribution each of their professions brings to the care of low back pain. Participants agreed to continue meeting on a regular basis and to expand their reach to include primary care medical physicians and others." The article continues with content of the meeting.

Comment: Good to see these cross-institutional relationships, if not yet formalized inter-institutional relationships, forming to advance and expand the spirit and practice of interprofessional care. Redwood's publication continues to be a leading-edge resource for better integration.

Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM) receives Building Bridges of Integration award

The Traditional Chinese Medicine World Federation granted the Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (CCAOM) its 2013 Building Bridges for Integration award. The award is conferred on individuals and organizations "for their pioneering work in helping integrate the unique healing traditions of TCM with contemporary health care." The annual report from CCAOM notes additional influences CCAOM has had internationally. Of particular note are CCAOM's clean needle technique (CNT). Consideration is underway in China that acupuncture doctors there "receive training and certification from the Council's CNT course." In addition, according to the CCAOM report, "textbooks used by CCAOM colleges are now translated from English to Chinese as part of an effort to urge reforms in Chinese TCM universities." Faculty in CCAOM colleges are increasingly asked to lecture in China

Comment: Fascinating to see this reverse "knowledge transfer" of acupuncture programs, course work and teachers from the US to China. Tea to China. Coals to New Castle.