How To Find An Integrative Medicine Physician
In my previous blogpost, I introduced Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, a highly respected herbalist and family medicine physician. She’s on the faculty of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, and serves as its Director of The Fellowship, a two-year course for medical professionals “that teaches the techniques and principles of integrative medicine.”
Founded by Dr. Andrew Weil, the Center defines integrative medicine as “healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.” You can learn more about the defining priciples of integrative medicine on their website.
This approach to healing requires a physician to spend more time with a patient than a traditional ten minute office visit allows, so you may want to consider doing what I did: add an integrative medicine physician to your “team” and let them work with you on hormone balancing, preventive medicine and issues of aging. I have been fortunate to find a physician in the San Francisco Bay area who graduated from this particular Fellowship program and she has helped me tremendously.
If you too want to find a physician who takes a more holistic approach to medicine, go to the website of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. In the left navigation bar, click on “clinic.” Then, on the right side, in the blue box, click on “find an IM practitioner.” Then use the pull down menu to select the state where you live. A list of doctors, along with their contact information, will appear.
Of course, there are outstanding medical centers and private practices throughout the country that can also be a resource for you, depending on where you live. Here are a few examples:
Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine (San Diego area)
Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program (Duluth, MN)
Duke Integrative Medicine (Durham, N.C)
Women To Women Clinic (Yarmouth, Maine)
Center for Integrative Medicine (Oakland, CA)
Is there an integrative medicine physician in your area whom you would like to recommend?
Dr. Jennifer – Thank you for your comment. You make a good point, but I don’t know what the solution is. I know first hand how difficult it is to find a physician who is knowledgeable about hormone balancing AND will devote the patient time that’s necessary for taking a holistic approach to wellness. I was lucky to find someone, but it wasn’t my gynecologist or internist. They still have their 10-minute office visit models which don’t work for menopausal women with complex issues.
I would just like to point out that there is a $25,000 fee to participate in the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine Fellowship Program. Most respectable medical fellowships actually pay physicians to participate in their program. Usually there is a detailed application process for a medical fellowship requiring peer references, test scores, credential/licensure validation and even investigation of criminal and driving records. My understanding of the Arizona fellowship is that the only requirement for practitioners is that they pay $25,ooo to have the priviledge of learning from their esteemed practitioners. As a board-certified family practitioner who struggles to address hormone issues with patients while still taking insurance as well as still paying off student loans from medical school, the opportunity to participate in Arizona’s fellowship is completely beyond my means.
I applaud your blog, and others, for educating women about the need for adequate hormone management. As a result, however, our broadening base of menopause patients are suffering from a crisis of supply v. demand: more and more women are educated about their need for apporpriate hormone management, but there is an unnecessary shortage of enlightened practitioners. Unless accomplished integrative physicians like Dr. Low Dog and Dr. Weil make an effort to educate their peers in an affordable way, patients will continue to be deprived of the care they deserve.
Big fan of Women to Women here and just wanted to point out that the clinic does do off-site phone conferencing with patients. Maybe this would work for women who just don’t live anywhere an integrative medicine practice? Here’s the link describing how this is done (and how much it costs): http://www.womentowomen.com/clinic/clnphoneconsults.aspx.
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