Preparing to Attend the 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health

 5.22.2022

This weekend I am packing to travel to a conference for the week of May 23rd – 27th, 2022. I will be representing the HHP as its director at the 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health, a conference hosted by the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health. This is the first time this conference has been held in-person since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The consortium is a collection of academic medical centers that have or are developing integrative health programs. Attending this conference is a unique opportunity to communicate about the HHP’s work with program leads and directors of programs at academic medical centers. And I’m looking forward to meeting many of the HHP community members in person for the first time. Yay!

 On Thursday afternoon, I will be on a panel of presenters discussing inpatient programs in integrative health.

 When HHP had a panel presentation for this conference in Spring 2020…

Did you know the HHP submitted a proposal for this conference and was accepted to present? Yes, and we were welcomed to present at the conference scheduled for spring 2020. However, as you might guess, that conference was canceled (beginning of the pandemic), and the accepted sessions were not otherwise presented in that forum. The subject of the session for 2020 was reimbursement and payment models for healthcare system-based acupuncture programs, variety, and innovation. And, it was to have several members of the HHP community from distinct organizations presenting together. However, since the conference was canceled, we rolled parts of that planned content into the HHP’s community discussion resources. We will hopefully be able to present more formally in the Issues in Hospital-based Practice webinar series when we have funding to support more sessions in that series. Live and recorded presentations have direct outgoing costs. You can help by directly donating to our Basic Operating Costs fundraiser or subscribing to the Issues resource today. Thank you!

The Hospital Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors is a program of Free Range Health®, a 501(c)(3) public charity. All or part of your donation may be tax-deductible as a charitable contribution. Please consult with your tax advisor. Federal Tax ID #45-4395933

 May 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health Co-Presenter Team

In May 2022, I will be co-presenting with several others on Thursday, May 26th, 2022, in the afternoon.

More about the 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health

• website: https://www.consortiumcongress.org/

• meeting agenda: https://www.consortiumcongress.org/agenda

The topic we will be Discussing

Inpatient Complementary and Integrative Health Care: Advances, Barriers, and Opportunities

Quote from the brochure (2.1.2022):

“The expansion of Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) services across the U.S. in the last 20 years has been well-documented. Although some attempts to characterize the spectrum of these services have been made, we have a limited understanding of the variety of care models, interactions with primary and specialty care, and financing mechanisms, among other characteristics. The extent of CIHM inpatient services in U.S. hospitals is unknown. There is no readily available information on the number of member institutions of the Academic Consortium of Integrative Medicine and Health offering such services. Available information suggests that inpatient CIH is less common than outpatient services. However, existing literature indicates that CIHM inpatient services, including acupuncture, acupressure, massage therapy, mind-body medicine, yoga therapy, holistic nursing, and music therapy, are feasible and amply utilized when available. They can improve patient outcomes, including pain management, anxiety, sleep, nausea, among others, and in some cases have been shown to reduce medication use and hospitalization costs. Inpatient CIH services are delivered by a variety of provider types, including trained nurses and physicians, acupuncturists, massage therapists, yoga therapists, etc. This panel of researchers and clinicians will address the current state of CIHM inpatient services in the U.S. Through four case studies, barriers, facilitators, and financing mechanisms will be explored. The panel will include experiences in both adult and pediatric populations and specialty services, such as integrative oncology and a non-profit community resource project supporting inpatient acupuncture services. Collaboration between outpatient and inpatient care will be explored, along with equity issues. The panel will also include a presentation highlighting recent studies aiming to characterize inpatient CIHM models. Participation from attendees with experience in inpatient CIH services will be encouraged. Potential next steps to enhance our understanding of inpatient CIHM services will be discussed.”

My co-presenters

• Francoise Adan, University Hospitals (UH) Connor Integrative Health Network, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

• Ana Baldioli, PT, HMCT, UCLA Health, Los Angeles, California, United States

• Megan Kingsley Gale, MSAOM, Dipl. OM (NCCAOM®), LAc, LMT, The Hospital-practice Handbook Project,

  • The national inpatient acupuncture discussion group & community resources

• Daniel Gallego-Perez, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Newbury, MA, United States

• Andrew Shubov, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States

• Ariana Thompson-Lastad, UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, San Francisco, California, United States

• Karen Villanueva, DAIM, LAc, Dipl. OM, RN, FAIHM, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Oakland, California, United States

The Limitation

As you may notice, seven professionals with only 60 minutes for the scheduled session. There is very little time to introduce each other, let alone fully tell our stories.

The Opportunity: Highlight Inpatient Acupuncture Programs through HHP community interviews

So, at the HHP, I continue interviewing colleagues working or managing inpatient acupuncture programs so we can take the time to highlight their work. If you are working in a program in the United States, please contact me to schedule an interview. If you know a colleague working in an inpatient acupuncture program, please share our website contact page with them and encourage them to contact us.

Thank you.

 Thank you for supporting this essential nonprofit community resource work!

The Hospital Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors is a program of Free Range Health®, a 501(c)(3) public charity. All or part of your donation may be tax-deductible as a charitable contribution. Please consult with your tax advisor. Federal Tax ID #45-4395933/

More information about the ICIMH Conference, May 2022