Written by Patrick Massey, M.D., Ph.D. While there will be continued debate concerning the benefits and safety of nontraditional medicine, the real medical community supports that integration of traditional and nontraditional approaches.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk about nontraditional medicine to a number of medical residents at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. One of the points I made was that the way we have practiced medicine for the past 50 years is coming to an end. The future is the integration of traditional and nontraditional approaches.
This process of integration was very evident last Tuesday. I was asked to participate in a panel discussion for a local PBS station in Urbana on the use and safety of nontraditional therapies. This program was a prelude to a program that aired, nationally, on PBS, on November 6th, called “The Alternative Fix.”
Accompanying me on the panel was a medical physician who practices traditional medicine, a yoga instructor, a nurse who practices healing touch, a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, a tai chi instructor and a law professor.
Now, years ago, this would have been the perfect recipe for disagreement and loud discussion. Not so today. In fact, the moderator was finding it difficult to find any topic of disagreement among the panelists. The physician, chiropractor and massage therapist have been referring patients to each other for years. They had respect for each other and the roles of their therapies in the medical system.
The tai chi instructor is working on his PhD in kinesiology, developing tai chi as a form of physical therapy. The yoga instructor already has a PhD and works with patients with chronic medical problems.
The law professor felt that government should encourage more research in the area of nontraditional medicine and he was very supportive of integrating the diverse medical systems.
I had a preview of the “Alternative Fix” before it aired. A number of internationally recognized physicians argued the merits and failings of nontraditional medicine. I would not call their discussions unfriendly, but they did not seem to be people who can work together well…too many egos.
One of the requirements of becoming a good physician, healer or therapist is to leave the ego at the door and do what is in the best interest of the patient. I believe that this is happening, primarily at the local level.
I have long realized that great changes in clinical medicine do not happen in the laboratory or at the large medical universities. They happen as a result of someone, in the community, saying “I need to do better for my patient.” Changes in clinical medicine are the result of not only thinking outside of the box, but actually doing it.
Someone asked me why there is significant resistance to nontraditional medicine at the national level. I believe that the answer is simple. Those physicians do not treat patients. They do research. In many cases, they have never done any clinical medicine and never had lasting contact with patients and their illnesses. They are not confronted by “I need to do better for my patient.” As a result, they are out of touch with reality.
While there will be continued debate, at the national level, concerning the benefits and safety of nontraditional medicine, the real medical community has already made its decision and patients are benefiting.
Posted November 19, 2008.
