Since its founding in 2001, the Center for Integrative Medicine at Cleveland Clinic has been dedicated to the following:
- Researching practices that address lifestyle, emotions and spiritual as well as physical needs.
- Providing educational programs for patients and staff.
- Assisting the departments in improving patient satisfaction, employee morale and quality of life by integrating practices that address the needs of the whole person.
What Patients Want to Know
Complementary therapies have roused the curiosity of the American population significantly in the last 10 years. Americans are spending billions of dollars, usually out of pocket, to gain access to complementary modalities.
The use of nutriceuticals (herbs and supplements) is the fastest growing segment of complementary medicine use. Patients who are using or considering such therapies would prefer to receive information from their physicians regarding risks and benefits rather than from their local health food store employee.
Patients are asking that their physicians incorporate evidence-based complementary modalities in their prescriptions for wellness in an integrative fashion.
What Physicians Need to Know
As the body of evidence continues to grow regarding the safety and efficacy (or dangers and inefficacy in some cases), physicians will need to maintain comfort with the literature in this field in order to adequately counsel patients.
The Center for Integrative Medicine will make faculty development a priority so that physicians are routinely updated on what works and what doesn’t. You can use this information to counsel patients on herbs or supplements that have been shown to be very helpful for certain conditions (e.g. glucosamine for arthritis and saw palmetto for BPH), and those which should be avoided (e.g. kava and liver failure, or St. John’s Wort and herb-drug interactions).
You will have the opportunity to learn how to teach relaxation techniques to your patients, or where to refer patients for more in-depth training with experienced mind-body coaches.
