ACTCM Vice President Represented at Conference
Elizabeth Goldblatt, PhD, MPA/HA, American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine's (ACTCM) Vice President for Academic Affairs, represented AOM at the Institute of Medicine's conference at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C., Feb. 25-27. The conference focused on integrative medicine. Dr. Goldblatt, who is the chair of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC), was the only member appointed to the IOM committee representing the licensed CAM fields.
Researchers, clinicians, patients, patient-advisory groups, corporations and insurers participated in the summit. Participants explored priorities, challenges and opportunities for integrative medicine and focused on defining models of care and clinical programs that work.
OCOM Reduces Clinic Fees
On Jan. 20, the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine reduced its clinic fees for acupuncture to make treatments more accessible to patients during these difficult economic times. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, so the clinic has reduce fees for other services as well. Effective Feb. 9, 2009, the rates are as follows:
While the clinic has no plan to raise fees at this time, these rates are still subject to change. For more information on these services, visit www.ocom.edu. Clinic appointments can be made by calling (503) 253-3443 x550.
Structured water (H3O2) can be considered a fourth state of water between liquid and solid. It has the hexagonal structure of ice; however, missing a critical bond, it behaves more like a gel than a solid, but retains some of its crystalline structure.
In the past five years of my clinical practice, I have seen an astonishing upsurge in the chronic use of proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) medications for the gastrointestinal issue diagnosed by allopathic medicine as GERD. It is not uncommon to encounter patients taking these prescriptions for five-plus years.
Working with chronically ill patients entails acknowledging the reality that not all patients will survive their diagnosis. Chinese medicine and acupuncture play a crucial role in palliative and end-of-life care, addressing medication and disease side effects, alleviating pain associated with death, reducing anxiety and stress, and helping patients find peace during the dying process.
