Andrew Weil, MD, founder, National Integrative Medicine Council.

Call it, “Dr. Weil Goes to Washington.”

With the formation of the National Integrative Medicine Council (NIMC), a new not-for-profit grass-roots coalition, the nation’s most visible holistic MD is intent on making sure integrative medicine takes a prominent place on the national health care policy agenda.

The Tucson-based Council, which launched earlier this fall, is committed to unifying all parties interested in integrative medicine—lay and professional, “orthodox” and “alternative,” commercial and academic—to speak with a clear, strong voice in Washington on policy that facilitates further evolution of the field.

Dr. Weil’s NIMC arrives hot on the heels of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP), which convened last summer to begin drafting formal policy recommendations on holistic health care by 2002.

The once underground natural medicine movement has clearly come of age and stepped into the mainstream of American civic life.

	Matt Russell, executive director of NIMC.

According to Matt Russell, NIMC’s executive director, the Council hopes to be to health policy what the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is to issues affecting elderly people: a powerful influence commanding respect on Capitol Hill without stuffing campaign coffers or making direct endorsements.

By its charter and tax status, NIMC cannot lobby congress people. It hopes to magnetize lawmakers by coordinating and channeling the vast energy of public interest. The Council is betting on people-power, not pocket-lining, to shape the future of integrative care.

First and foremost, the non-partisan Council will focus on, “promoting the authenticity, credibility and long-term viability of integrative medicine by ensuring that it is a fundamental component of federal discussions over health care policy,” said Dr. Weil, in an interview with Holistic Primary Care.

There is a long list of specific issues such as medical education reform, credentialling of non-MD holistic practitioners, and insurance coverage which the Council may someday take on.

For the moment, there is much groundwork to be done. “Before we formally address these significant issues, we must first provide policy-makers with the long-term context for the kind of change we would like to see effected,” said Dr. Weil.

And that, in short, is a health care system that knits together what is best and most effective from all healing systems, while eliminating what is ineffective, ridden with adverse effects, or cost-inefficient.

Dr. Weil’s vision of truly integrative medicine goes a lot further than simply putting a few green tricks into allopathic medicine’s proverbial black bag. It means re-thinking the foundations of medicine, and re-defining the relationships between the various health and healing systems.

Bill Benda, MD, director of medical and public affairs for NIMC.

“The question must always be, ‘What is best for the individual patient?’ And this means getting rid of assumptions on all sides,” said Bill Benda, MD, an emergency medicine physician who is now NIMC’s director of medical and public affairs.

Using the example of hypertension, Dr. Benda explained that if a patient has a blood pressure of 160/104 mmHg, one could, instead of jumping directly to an ACE inhibitor or beta-blocker, try a combination of hypnosis or biofeedback, exercise, and supplementation with garlic and co-enzyme Q10 for a few months. On the other hand, if the pressure is 190/120 mmHg, it would be foolish to think you could control that with diet and lifestyle alone.

“You could be 90% alternative and 10% allopathic, or the other way around, depending on the clinical situation.”

Real integration will require open-mindedness and give-and-take from all health care disciplines. Given the history of conflict between the currently dominant system (allopathy) and “alternative” disciplines such as naturopathy, homeopathy, and oriental medicine, that may not be so easy.

Dr. Benda, who provided emergency services during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, and later completed Dr. Weil’s University of Arizona fellowship in integrative medicine, said allopathic medicine’s defensive, closed-minded stance toward other systems is outmoded and unnecessary. He maintains that the various healing systems are synergistic, not competitive.

“They do different things. If you, as an MD, are losing patients to alternative medicine practitioners, then you are doing something wrong or not doing something you should be doing. The various professions, if they are practicing conscientiously, won’t be stealing patients from each other, they will be unloading the patients they cannot help.”

Dr. Weil hopes to work closely with the 18-member White House commission which, while including esteemed experts in many fields, does not include representatives from naturopathy, homeopathy, or the lay public. Since his Council is a membership organization open to any interested individual, he believes it will represent a wider spectrum of constituencies and perspectives.

“The concept of a national education and advocacy organization for integrative medicine was embraced long before the White House commission was seated,” Dr. Weil said. “With our broad membership base, we can provide the commission with data as to those issues most germane to all practitioners in this field.”

He believes the biggest barrier to a flourishing integrative model is simply, “the shortage of well-trained integrative physicians, as well as the lack of communication and unification of those currently in practice.”

While many medical schools now have some coursework on “alternative” medicine, most are superficial, and there’s little coordination between programs.

NIMC will not engage in developing training curricula or other specifics of education reform, but Dr. Weil said they are currently negotiating small demonstration projects to gauge the efficacy of the integrative model in medical education.

Dr. Benda sees the Council as a catalyst rather than a force for direct action. “Our job will be to bring the various institutions together, and make it possible for unrelated entities to relate in a coordinated way.”

Despite the turmoil surrounding the recent presidential election, and the inter-party battles that characterize American political life, integrative medicine is a surprisingly bi-partisan issue, Dr. Benda told Holistic Primary Care.

“This is consumer-driven, and it crosses all demographic and political lines. No one is going to stop the flood of people getting what they want.”

And what the people seem to want is a fundamental change in how medicine is practiced. “History dictates that things shift and paradigms change,” said Dr. Benda. “In 1900, allopathy was not the dominant system, but it took over. And something will take over from allopathy. I don’t know what the next stage will be, but the model we are proposing certainly isn’t a bad one!”

To learn more about the National Integrative Medicine Council, visit the website: www.nimc.org