Anyone involved in healthcare knows that patient self-reporting is the least reliable form of data collection. Yet in many cases, that—and a few lab measures—is all a clinician has to guide medical decisions.
How is the rollout of the Affordable Care Act affecting holistically-minded primary care clinicians?
“In the near future, we won’t just be prescribing drugs, we’ll be prescribing apps,” said physician-futurist Daniel Kraft, MD, at the recent NEXT Innovation Summit. Dr. Kraft said that a Star Trek-esque world of tricorder-enabled Dr. McCoy’s tailoring treatments and tweaking human biology based on real-time physiologic data is already here. ”It’s just not evenly distributed.” Dr. Kraft also reviewed 10 essential tech advances that should be part of any practitioner’s digital tool bag.
A few years ago, it would have been a pipe dream to suggest that a naturopathic physician might have a hand in shifting attitudes—and policies–of one of the nation’s largest health insurers.
LONG BEACH, CA — A wealth of new practice models are erupting in the field of integrative medicine, as more physicians and other practitioners seek ways of practicing that are more holistic and embracing of all aspects of their patients’ lives.
Good go-to video resources for patient education can help you make much better use of their limited face-to-face time with patients, says practice development consultant James Maskell.
The long and winding road toward creation of a widely recognized medical specialty in holistic medicine has taken a new turn, one that leaders of the effort believe can take physicians a lot farther toward that goal.
Clinicians think a lot about organ systems, but far fewer think systematically about their own practices. That’s unfortunate, because well-designed practice systems can greatly improve clinical outcomes and fiscal health, say consultants Gail Sophia Edgell & Traci Brosman.
As companies like 23andMe take sophisticated genomic testing directly to the consumer market, a growing number of people are seeking guidance on how to respond to the test results. According to Dr. Deanna Minich, that spells major opportunity for holistically-minded clinicians.
Holistic physicians often start out by trying to cram things like nutrition counseling, stress management or herbal medicine into conventional care frameworks–with limited success. Erin Martin, DO, a physician profiled in the popular film, Escape Fire, took the opposite route. At her new clinic she made lifestyle-based medicine the core and gradually adds conventional primary care services.
Copyright © 2024 Holistic Primary Care. All Rights Reserved.
