CAM Commission files interim progress report

by Veronica Gutierrez, D.C.

Following its July 2001 meeting, the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Policy prepared and presented to Secretary of Health Tommy G. Thompson and chairmen of the Congressional Health Committees, an Interim Progress Report on the work of the Commission.

The report included a brief overview of the establishment of the Commission, the Commission's charge, an overview of the CAM movement, a list of the members, and the activities to date.

Included was a list of the 10 principles that will guide the Commission in its final work:

1. Wholeness. Health involves all aspects of life -- mind, body, spirit, relationships and environment -- and quality health care must support care of the whole person in this context.

2. Health and Healing. The body/mind/spirit has a remarkable capacity for recovery and self-healing and a major focus of health care is to support and promote this capacity.

3. Individuality. Every person is unique and has the right to have healthcare customized to that uniqueness, respecting personal preferences and preserving individual dignity.

4. Choice. People have the right to choose freely among safe and effective therapies and/or qualified practitioners, who are responsive to their needs and accountable for their claims and actions.

5. Education and Empowerment. Education about prevention, healthy lifestyles, and the power of self-care and healing capacity should be made an integral part of curricula for both health-care professionals and the public at all ages.

6. Partnerships. Good health care requires collaborative teamwork between conventional and complementary practitioners, researchers, and patients committed to the creation and delivery of optimal health environments. Any potential benefits of CAM for the public can best be maximized through promoting collaborations between conventional and CAM healthcare professionals and researchers. These collaborations can best be encouraged by the integrated delivery of CAM and conventional medicine, where CAM practitioners work side-by-side with conventional practitioners and institutions. Integrated delivery, however, does not mean the distillation of CAM services that are then offered by conventionally trained practitioners.

7. Evidence. The Commission is committed to promoting the use of science and the appropriate scientific methods to help identify safe and effective CAM services and products and inclusion of evidence that will enhance the development and delivery of these service and products.

8. Public Involvement. Public and consumer views and participation must be included in all research and health care prioritizations and decisions.

9. Prevention. Good health care emphasizes the promotion of health in addition to the treatment of disease. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that it is significantly more humane and cost-effective to prevent illness and disease compared to treating people once they become ill.

10. Dissemination. Quality health care can be enhanced by promoting efforts that thoroughly and thoughtfully examine the current evidence base for CAM systems and practices and make this evidence base widely and easily available in a timely fashion. The Commission recognized the need to enhance this evidence base by advocating for high-quality research.

The report noted that the Commission found these 10 guiding principles "remarkably consistent with the core values of the National Academy off Sciences' Institute of Medicine report on ways to improve health care in the 21st century."

Information for the final report had been gathered at seven formal meetings in Washington, D.C. and four Town Hall meetings held around the country. All included open sessions for public comment.

The Interim Progress Report states that, "In total, the Commission has heard from more than 1,000 speakers and received nearly 2,000 individual comments and recommendation from the public."

The Commission's members have volunteered to participate in the development of any of the eight workgroups fine tuning the text for the final document to be completed by March 2002.

The four workgroups I'm personally involved with are:

	Principles and Definitions. I am servicing on this committee, which seeks to change the phrase "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" to one which more appropriately describes the groups we are looking at, such as chiropractic and mind/body/spirit healing. The final document will address chiropractic, not chiropractic medicine ... chiropractors, not chiropractic physicians ... the adjustment ... not manipulation.
	*Research.* The effort of this committee, which I also serve on, is to make research efforts and dollars more available, provide more training opportunities, and encourage the development of new research models, which better address non-allopathic research.
	Centralization. Efforts to centralize and coordinate the work of the Commission past the completion of its current work is the key goal of this committee, which I serve on.
	Education and licensure. This workgroup will address the question of whether chiropractors should qualify as Primary Care Providers in MUAs under Title VII, and make recommendations to the full Commission. Although I am not on this committee, I am working closely with its members.

Other workgroups which will help further the progress of CAM's mission include:

Wellness, Self-Care, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, which will focus on five areas:

1) Wellness, self-care, and prevention among children. I suggested that they make recommendations other than Ritalin for labeled children, which the staff agreed they will do.

2) Utilization of CAM to help achieve the nation's health promotion and disease prevention goals, which will be based on the publication Healthy People: The Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Health People 2010.

3) Wellness, Self-Care, and Prevention in the workplace.

4) Wellness, self-care, and prevention activities in hospitals, long term care facilities, primary care settings, and programs serving the aging, dying, and those with chronic illness.

5) Wellness, self-care, and prevention activities in Federal health programs serving vulnerable populations.

	Information Development and Dissemination.
	Access to and Delivery of CAM.
	Coverage and Reimbursement

The full text of the Interim Progress Report can be found at the Commission website

(Dr. Veronica Gutierrez is a member of the Board of Directors of the World Chiropractic Alliance and the only chiropractor appointed to serve on the White House CAM Commission. She also chairs the WCA Council on Women's Health and maintains a successful practice in the state of Washington.)

Return to index