Integrative Medicine

Integrative medicine is an innovative approach to providing comprehensive medical care. It involves working with a health care team to provide specialized and complementary therapies to patients. A collaborative contribution of both traditional and complementary practitioners provides medical services that are derived from a common philosophy in patient care.

Developing a functional integrative model has a number of important factors to consider. "Alternative" therapies can themselves be quite linear in their approach, focusing on a unique paradigm of healing. Examples of this would include such practices as the energetic approach of traditional Chinese medicine or homeopathy versus the structural emphasis of chiropractic care. Together these practitioners can each provide services to the patient through a referral system, but rarely take the opportunity to approach the patient as a team.

Traditionally integrative health centers have been run by chiropractors, who in turn build teams to support their philosophy of healing.

In contrast to this approach, integrative centers that are directed by medical doctors traditionally approach patient care from an evidenced based paradigm, focusing on therapies that have been shown in research studies to have a beneficial effect. These treatments are then provided by the doctor themselves or through the established network of complementary practitioners working in the same office.

Although this model may also be referred to as an integrative approach, it is usually the implementation of a medical model using some complementary medicines or alternative interventions. This model only accounts for the application of complementary therapies, not their equally powerful role in providing a means of evaluating illness or a disease process from a unique paradigm of healing.

Balancing effective patient care with many paradigms of treatment is a challenging endeavor that is nevertheless becoming increasingly important to educated health care consumers.

The integrative approach that we are building at the Integrative Health Institute is based on a truly collaborative approach to patient care. It is founded on the premise of open and constructive communication between practitioners regarding all aspects of patient care. It involves providing patients with access to varied medical philosophies and practitioners who share a common vision for integration based on three prerequisites.

These include:

• a common theory and understanding of illness and the holistic understanding of the factors that may play a role in its occurrence
• a framework within which to assess and apply therapeutic interventions and
• a willingness of all practitioners and their patients to explore different healing paradigms.

These three pre-requisites manifest through a team approach to patient care.

The Integrative Health Institute endeavors to combine the science of sound medical knowledge with the intuition and creative thinking that embodies the art of medicine. We work collaboratively with our clients to find solutions that address the cause of their concerns.

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