Quoted message said:Subject: Re: Public Wants Evidenced Based Medicine
From: [email hidden] (I Dream of Ilsa9)
Date: 4/13/2004 7:38 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id: <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:This kind of flies in the face of claimaints that more and
more people are turning to alternative medicine. Notice
the buzz words like *scientific evidence* *evidence based
medicine* *best scientific research* *medical evidence*
that the majority of voters want...those same words that
put the voo doo medicine proponents to sleep.
biz.yahoo.comdctu024 1.htmlOpen ↗ More
Poll Results Voters More Likely to Vote for Candidates Who
Support ...
Yes, the public at large wants evidence based medicine.
heall.comstatistics.htmlOpen ↗
Projections as to the future of medicine, psychology, health
care, Alternative Mind/Body medicine, and the current state
of affairs in health care in the USA
During the closing weeks of the 105th Congress, Norm
Anderson, Director of the Office of Behavioral and Social
Sciences Research at the National Institute of Health (NIH),
testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the
topic of Mind/Body Medicine.
At that time, the media and physician witnesses pointed out
that spending on our nation's health care is likely to
double to $2.1 trillion by the year 2007; that already
proven mind-body therapies could eliminate 37 percent of
visits to the doctor per year and save $54 billion annually;
and that stress contributes to many of the medical
conditions confronted by healthcare practitioners -- between
60 to 90 percent of visits to Physicians are related to
stress and other psychosocial factors.
Senator Tom Harkin, the Ranking member of the Appropriations
subcommittee, subsequently shared with his colleagues a
report developed by the Institute for Alternative Futures.
This document noted that today, complementary and
alternative approaches to health and medicine are among the
fastest growing aspects of health care. In 1990, one-third
of the U.S. population used some form of alternative
approach to health care, and by the year 2010 at least two-
thirds will.
The Institute further projected that one shall soon
experience the customizing or personalization of health
care, integrating several approaches based on the unique
needs of each individual. Genomics will identify what genes
and what physical or behavioral characteristics (genotypes
and phenotypes) are most relevant for determining how to
treat a given condition with given modalities.
Interestingly, complementary and alternative approaches such
as oriental medicine, homeopathy and ayurveda already have
extensive knowledge of individual differences built into
their diagnostic and therapeutic systems. We must expect
these complementary modes of analysis becoming integrated
into conventional care, along with parallel psychological
tests -- conventional medicine and alternative approaches
will both challenge and learn from each other.
The report noted the dramatic growth in numbers among the
complementary and alternative health professions. For
example, health care professionals (including physicians)
trained in oriental medicine will swell to 24,000 by the
year 2010; the number of chiropractors will nearly double by
then from 55,000 to 103,000. This expansion of practitioners
comes at a time when numerous other credible forecasts
suggest significant surpluses of conventional health care
providers by the year 2010 (e.g., surpluses of 100,000
physicians, 200,000 nurses, and 40,000 pharmacists).
Accordingly, all professions and individual practitioners
must expect tremendously increased competition from other
disciplines and traditional health care systems. While the
opportunities to function, as a "healer" will expand
dramatically, the ability to be financially successful will
become more and more challenging.
The 21st century will also undoubtedly be the era of the
integration of exponential advances within technology
fields with critical events in health care. Outcome
measures will be applied to local health care Providers and
appear in local report cards accessible to consumers and
third party payers (those who ultimately "pay the bill"😉 by
the year 2010.
Our nation's health professional educational systems will
undergo major, if not unprecedented, changes. These, of
necessity, must incorporate significantly greater use of
technology and "virtual learning environments".
Similarly, state professional licensing systems will undergo
major modifications. One must expect professionals of all
disciplines to attempt to maintain and "protect their turf",
but ultimately the boundaries of the professions are likely
to blur. The right to continue to practice with a license
will be based upon one's demonstrated outcomes; as local
marketplaces become "smarter", consumers will regulate the
market by economically rewarding "better practitioners".
The Institute further projected that these trends will lead
to Managed Care by the 2010 that is far more effective, prevention-
oriented and customized. It will utilize health care
professionals far more effectively. A projected major source
of competition for managed care will become "self-managed
care". The same information tools that will enable managed
care to become more effective, prevention-oriented and
customized will be available to individuals and families --
consumers will seek prevention and wellness services that go
far beyond what today we contemplate as "medical" or even
"health care".
Least one might think that the report forwarded to his
colleagues by the Ranking member of the Appropriations
subcommittee is a little too "futuristic", we would like to
share some thoughts we recently received from the President
of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which over the past
several decades has been extraordinarily active in fostering
changes within our nation's health care system.
"Our assets have ballooned to over $7 billion dollars,
almost tripling since I came here in 1990. In a landmark
1990 paper in JAMA, our senior consultant... found that
fewer than 10% of premature deaths in the United States can
be prevented by medical care. Nearly half of all deaths are
associated with lifestyle and behavior choices. Yet this
nation spends less than 5% of its total health care dollar
on disease prevention and health promotion. This is not
surprising given that Medicare providers and patients (and
other players) are a political force in the health care
arena, while health itself has no such natural constituency.
Health is something of an orphan."
"Beginning in 1990-91, with our commitment to reducing the
health consequences of substance abuse, we have been
bolstering our prevention and behavior/lifestyle
investments. But we can do more. The restructuring will
facilitate our growth into other behaviors associated with
significant morbidity and mortality in this country. We are
exploring, for example, whether targeted grantmaking could
help reverse Americans' increasingly sedentary lifestyle.
If you think Americans have turned into physical fitness
freaks, consider these statistics: The time Americans spend
in the cars quadrupled between 1960 and 1990; and between
1960 and 1992 the time watching television per household per
day increased from 5.06 to 7.04 hours...."
Norm Anderson's testimony: "NIH has a long and revered
tradition of funding research in the physiological realm,
and more recently, there is tremendous excitement in the
realm of genetics research. But equally important is the
recognition of the role that behavioral, psychological,
sociocultural and environmental factors play in health.
Our beliefs, our emotions, our behavior, our thoughts, our
family and cultural systems, as well as the environmental
context in which we live, all are as relevant to our health
as our genetic inheritance and our physiology...."
"Health science has reached a point where it is no longer
accurate to talk about psychology versus biology; the mind
versus the body; or nature versus nurture. These processes
are inextricably linked. When I talk about mind/body
medicine, I am referring to these linkages. That is, the
connections between psychological, behavioral, and
sociocultural processes with all levels of biological
functioning - from the organ systems, to the cellular, to
the molecular.
PAT DE LEON President Elect Div. 29, American
Psychological Ass.
