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Andrew Weil

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Weil.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

The integrative family medicine program: an innovation in residency education.

The Integrative Family Medicine (IFM) Program is a four-year combined family medicine residency program and integrative medicine fellowship. It was created in 2003 to address the needs of four constituencies: patients who desire care from well trained integrative physicians, physicians who seek such training, the health care system which lacks a conventional integrative medicine training route, and educational leaders in family medicine who are seeking new strategies to reverse the declining interest in family medicine amongst U.S. graduates. The program was designed jointly by the University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) and family medicine residency programs at Beth Israel/Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), Maine Medical Center, Middlesex Hospital, Oregon Health & Science University, and the Universities of Arizona and Wisconsin. One or two residents from each of these institutions may apply, and when selected, commit to extending their training by a fourth year. They complete their family medicine residencies at their home sites, enroll in the distributed learning associate fellowship at PIM, and are mentored by local faculty members who have training in integrative medicine. To date three classes totaling twenty residents have entered the program. Evaluation is performed jointly: PIM evaluates the residents during residential weeks and through online modules and residency faculty members perform direct observation of care and review treatment plans. Preliminary data suggest that the program enhances interest amongst graduating medical students in family medicine training. The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education Family Medicine residency review committee has awarded the pilot experimental status.

Complementary Therapies↗

Aging naturally.

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Aging↗

Integrative medicine and systemic outcomes research: issues in the emergence of a new model for primary health care.

Clinicians and researchers are increasingly using the term integrative medicine to refer to the merging of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with conventional biomedicine. However, combination medicine (CAM added to conventional) is not integrative. Integrative medicine represents a higher-order system of systems of care that emphasizes wellness and healing of the entire person (bio-psycho-socio-spiritual dimensions) as primary goals, drawing on both conventional and CAM approaches in the context of a supportive and effective physician-patient relationship. Using the context of integrative medicine, this article outlines the relevance of complex systems theory as an approach to health outcomes research. In this view, health is an emergent property of the person as a complex living system. Within this conceptualization, the whole may exhibit properties that its separate parts do not possess. Thus, unlike biomedical research that typically examines parts of health care and parts of the individual, one at a time, but not the complete system, integrative outcomes research advocates the study of the whole. The whole system includes the patient-provider relationship, multiple conventional and CAM treatments, and the philosophical context of care as the intervention. The systemic outcomes encompass the simultaneous, interactive changes within the whole person.

Complementary Therapies↗

Integrative medical education: development and implementation of a comprehensive curriculum at the University of Arizona.

Dissatisfaction with the U.S. health care system is increasing despite impressive technologic advances. This dissatisfaction is one factor that has led patients to seek out complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and led medical schools to start teaching CAM. This paper focuses on the University of Arizona's approach to developing and implementing a comprehensive curriculum in integrative medicine. Integrative medicine is defined much more broadly than CAM. It is healing-oriented medicine that reemphasizes the relationship between patient and physician, and integrates the best of complementary and alternative medicine with the best of conventional medicine. Since its inception in 1996, the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) has grown to include a two-year residential fellowship that educates four fellows each year, a distance learning associate fellowship that educates 50 physicians each year, medical student and resident rotations, continuing medical and professional education, an NIH-supported research department, and an active outreach program to facilitate the international development of integrative medicine. The paper describes the PIM curriculum, educational programs, clinical education, goals, and results. Future strategies for assessing competency and credentialing professionals are suggested.

Arizona↗