Natl Summit on Integrative Medicine & Public Health February 25-27, 2009 National Academy of Sciences’ Building 2100 C St. N.W., Washington, D.C. Advocates WELCOME but there are no scholarships available. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) and The Bravewell Collaborative have partnered to convene a summit that will explore the science and practice of integrative medicine — health care that addresses together the mental, emotional, and physical aspects of the healing process — for improving the breadth and depth of patient-centered care and promoting the nation's health. The meeting will review the state of the science, assess the potential and the priorities, and begin to identify elements of an agenda to improve understanding, training, practice, and other actions that might help improve the prospects for integrative medicine’s contributions to better health and health care. Prevention, research, education, and clinical care will also be addressed. Experts will be invited to discuss integrative medicine, but not specific, alternative modalities of care to facilitate behavioral change to maintain wellness and avoid illness and disease. It will be important to include patient perspectives. The meeting will examine the ways integrative medicine seeks to address the personal and community environments that shape and empower patients’ knowledge, skills, and support to be active participants in their own care. The content should inform the participants and identify priorities for moving forward, including exploration of both barriers and models of care and clinical programs that work. The summit will cover integrative medicine research methodology and ways to measure the interaction of multiple therapies. For more information, please contact Samantha Chao at 202-334-2368 or by email at schao@nas.edu. Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.