General News > CME Opportunities in Integrative Medicine

CME Opportunities in Integrative Medicine

February 06, 2012

Over the past months, we have been sharing with you book reviews from the Weil Integrative Medicine Library in a variety of areas. These have included integrative practice in oncology, women’s health, pediatrics, gastroenterology, rheumatology, psychiatry, and cardiology. Upcoming volumes will include neurology, men’s health, and more. These are enormously helpful books in assembling the evidence and practice of integrative medicine. Whatever your specialty, you’ll find something for you. For a list of titles and ordering information, go to http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/series/WeilIntegrativeMedicineLibrary/?view=usa. Or just Google Weil Integrative Medicine library, Oxford.

As much as we all like to read to further our clinical education and practice skills, let’s face it, changing our daily practice often requires the support and encouragement of other professionals. Though we only grow when we extend beyond our comfort zone, it is comforting to know others have gone before us and we aren’t out there alone. New practices and new knowledge in medicine are often hard to adapt as we all are prone to be stuck in the ways we have always done things since residency or fellowship. Also, we all owe it to our patients to be sure newly proposed integrative methods are rational, safe, and effective.

One of the best ways to move from theory and knowledge to application is to attend CME conferences where we meet and greet fellow physicians, hear what they are doing in the integrative medicine space, and learn from reputable speakers about the evidence and the practice of integrative methods. These often include those we haven’t used in our own practices. Recent changes in CME rules have encouraged CME courses to follow-up and see what impact their programs have actually made on attendees. Receiving information and applying it are two different orders of learning. Such courses are increasingly targeted to changing practice, not just increasing knowledge.

So, as I sat in a plane returning from San Diego to Houston, after both presenting and attending the annual Scripps Natural Supplements conference, it occurred to me that sharing some of the learning opportunities I had just experienced in San Diego with our Houston area physicians could be helpful to y’all.

I started by compiling a list of my favorite annual and upcoming conferences where a physician can go to a nice venue, learn something new and practical for Monday morning, and feel comfortable adding some new integrative techniques to his/her practice.

Here is a partial listing of what is available with some comments:

Scripps Integrative Medicine Natural Supplements Conference

]http://www.scripps.org/assets/documents/naturalsupplementsbrochure2012.pdf

This conference, now just completing its 9^th year, is one of my favorites. I have had the pleasure of attending and speaking at it for many years. It attracts well over 400 medical professionals to the San Diego and La Jolla area, most recently at the elegant San Diego Bayfront Hilton. Speakers cover essential integrative medicine topics using an evidence- based approach. These include integrative approaches to GI health, cardiovascular disease, cancer, headache, arthritis, depression, new evidence on botanicals and dietary supplements, and many more. See the website link for details of this year’s program and plan to go next year. It is usually the third week of January in San Diego, a great time to escape the oppressive winter here in Galveston and Houston J.

University of Arizona Center of Integrative Medicine Nutrition Conference

http://nutritionandhealthconf.org/

I have attended several of these conferences and find them fun, educational, and delicious! Attendees enjoy healthful salmon, chocolate, green teas, and excellent information about cutting edge, evidence-based nutritional guidelines. You will taste delicious and healthful meals based on the latest dietary recommendations and anti-inflammatory guidelines. Meals are organic, sustainable and increasingly sourced locally. While getting credit for your professional development, you will get expert, applicable and timely information not covered at other conferences. Learn from and alongside like-minded professionals who realize the value of an integrative approach to medicine and nutrition. This one is coming up in April, 2012 in Boston. Go if you can, and if not this year, look for it next spring.

ABHIM review course

http://www.abihm.org/physicians/board-certification

This review course is a wonderful week of learning covering the waterfront on integrative and holistic practices preceding the ABIHM Board exam. Lectures and experiential learning provide the attendee with pragmatic skills and knowledge to not only take a test but to apply such principles in practice. Healthful meals, morning yoga, meditation, and tai chi set the tone for a time to retool and reinvent yourself and your practice.

Application for certification as a Diplomate of the ABIHM is for MD or DO physicians who choose to incorporate integrative holistic principles into their practices, and to demonstrate to their colleagues and patients that they have undergone the only comprehensive, peer-reviewed, psychometrically validated examination process in integrative holistic medicine. The certification enables physicians to obtain a credential that attests to their knowledge in the field and affords them the recognition of having met a recognized standard of achievement.

Taking this test will provide Diplomate status until 2013 after which it is expected that a fellowship in integrative medicine will be required for board certification by the American Board of Physician Specialties. Tests will be offered in May and November of 2012) and in January of 2013. (with next review course in San Diego in November).

International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health

http://imconsortium-congress2012.org/about-the-conference.html

This is the premier meeting on research in the field. Co-sponsored by the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine (CAHCIM) and the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR), this international event starts May 15, 2012 in Portland, Oregon. It brings together the best international researchers in the field to present exciting new findings applicable to clinical practice and future research. Over 600 abstracts are under review and we are expecting over 800 attendees from more than two dozen countries to be present. It will be a high quality, benchmark conference with lots of opportunities to network, share new ideas, and learn about the cutting edge research in integrative medicine.

Helms Medical Institute Acupuncture Training

http://www.hmieducation.com/

For those of you who wish to learn how to incorporate acupuncture into your practice for pain management and more, this is the premier program. Helms Medical Institute educates physicians in the science and art of medical acupuncture. HMI sponsors the oldest ongoing medical acupuncture training program in North America. It is the only training that offers a comprehensive foundation in all dimensions of acupuncture. Ninety percent of physicians practicing acupuncture in the United States have been trained through Helms Medical Institute's Medical Acupuncture for Physicians courses. HMI has been chosen by the US military to teach this discipline to its physicians.

There are a number of other annual courses such as the Integrative Healthcare Symposium in New York City (Feb 8-11, 2012) http://www.ncnm.edu/academic-programs/master-of-science-in-integrative-medicine-research/integrative-healthcare-symposium-2012.php which you could attend this year or next. Get on their mailing lists.

All of these and more are opportunities to sit elbow to elbow with other holistic practitioners and to learn how to transform your practice and enhance the care of your patients.

Victor S. Sierpina, MD

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