Schools Opening Up to Alternative Medicine

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Schools Opening Up to Alternative Medicine

 

By JOANN LOVIGLIO

06/05/05 09:08

 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Once largely dismissed as a leftover fad from the

Age of Aquarius, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other forms of

alternative medicine are finding their way into curriculums at

traditional medical schools - most recently the University of Pennsylvania.

 

Doctors at Penn are working with Tai Sophia Institute, an alternative

medicine school in Maryland, on a program to teach medical students

about herbal therapies, meditation and other approaches that are

increasingly popular with the public but largely exist outside the realm

of mainstream medicine. It will start in August.

 

" We're not going to turn great surgeons into acupuncturists or

herbalists; that's not the idea, " said Robert Duggan, co-founder of Tai

Sophia. " The goal is that Penn medical school graduates will be highly

able to speak with patients about how to guide these things into their

overall care. "

 

More than a third of American adults have tried alternative therapies -

including yoga, meditation, herbs and the Atkins diet - according to a

2002 government survey of 31,000 people, the largest study of its kind

in the United States.

 

Universities nationwide, in response to the burgeoning numbers, are

increasingly focusing on complementary medicine (used along with

conventional treatment) and alternative medicine (used instead of

conventional treatment). Some are creating their own programs and others

are working with alternative medicine practitioners, said Aviad

Haramati, a professor at Georgetown University's medical school.

 

" More and more there's a willingness by conventional schools to

recognize the CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) schools as

having this expertise, " Haramati said. " And there's a recognition by the

CAM disciplines that linking with conventional academic centers to

foster research is a good thing. "

 

Georgetown students work with a massage therapy school, for example, and

Tufts University students work with an acupuncture school, he said.

 

" It made perfect sense to us, " said Dr. Alfred P. Fishman of Penn's

medical school, co-director of the collaboration. " We thought, why start

from scratch? This is a very respected organization with 30 years of

hands-on experience. "

 

More than 95 of the nation's 125 medical schools require some kind of

complementary and alternative medicine coursework, according to the

Association of American Medical Colleges.

 

The new partnership will offer a master's degree in complementary and

alternative medicine. The degree, offered to the university's medical

and nursing students, will come from the Tai Sophia Institute; the

schools will exchange faculty members and students.

 

" If you had raised this 10 years ago everyone would have sneered at it, "

Fishman said. " Today, we're moving away from being completely focused on

preventing disease and toward looking at what it takes to (achieve and

maintain) wellness. ... I think patient care will improve enormously. "

 

One critic of the trend is Dr. Steven Barrett of Allentown, a Columbia

University-trained psychologist who runs the Web site Quackwatch.

 

Alternative medicine programs are finding their way into mainstream

institutions not because there's proof the therapies work, Barrett said,

but because skeptical voices are squelched and " administrators see it as

a way to jump on the bandwagon and get grant money. "

 

Penn and Tai Sophia are also developing postgraduate and continuing

education courses on complementary and alternative medicine. One

program, for example, will teach doctors about herbal medicines so they

can better serve their patients who are already taking them.

 

In addition, cardiologists at Penn's Presbyterian Medical Center are

working with Tai Sophia to integrate alternative therapies into

traditional care for heart patients. The idea is to teach the cardiology

staff how to develop personalized therapy plans - including everything

from meditation and massage to reflexology and aromatherapy - to

decrease patient stress, pain and anxiety.

 

" We get the benefit of their extraordinary research capabilities and

educational facilities. They get the benefit of an institution that

understands the world of (unconventional medicine), " Duggan said.

 

Fishman said the research possibilities are exciting as well. For

example, new brain imaging technology will allow researchers to

physically explore how things like herbs, acupuncture, even prayer, can

make people feel better.

 

" In the days before we could image the brain it was very hard to know

about how these things worked, why placebos work in some people, " he

said. " We can image the brain now and see why they feel better. Nothing

is off limits. "

 

On the Net:

Penn program: http://www.med.upenn.edu/progdev/compmed

Tai Sophia Institute: http://www.tai.edu

 

Quackwatch: http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/altwary.html

 

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