Summaries of Clinical Center’s and Academic Consortia’s Planned Activities
Updated 03/07/06
San Diego, California
Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine (SCIM)
On March 23, Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine held their centerpiece event, a free prescreening of The New Medicine included a presentation by Mimi Guarneri, MD who was featured in the documentary. The event, held at Scripps Memorial Hospital’s Schaetzel Center in La Jolla, drew a standing-room only crowd of just over 300 and was followed by a VIP reception. Chris VanGorder, Scripps CEO provided a recorded welcome. David Leopold, MD; Robert Bonakdar, MD; Raneth Heng, MD; Chris Suhar; Rauni King; and Bill Fink (a heart patient featured in the documentary) fielded audience questions.
Attendees had high praise for the event. When asked what they liked most, comments included, “Wonderful evening—inspiring!,” “The total event was superlative—The Best.,” “Renewed again my sense of hope.”
In addition to the screening, Scripps launched an aggressive promotional tune-in campaign promoting the effort through doctors’ lectures, the Inside Scripps newsletter, internal e-mail, Scripps intranet and through existing educational programs where the air date was announced and save-the-date cards distributed:
- The SCIM and UCSD sponsored 3rd Annual Natural Supplements Conference: An Evidence-Based Update, January 20-22, 2006 in San Diego.
- Buick Invitational Golf Tournament, January, 2006
- American Heart Association Luncheon, February, 2006
- San Diego Union Tribune employee health lecture, February, 2006
- Kyocera Wireless employee health lecture, March 2006
- Destination Health: Renewing Body, Mind and Soul one-week “vacation and personal renewal” event March 5-10, 2006. Six-minute clip was screened
San Francisco, California
Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (OCIM)
On Tuesday, February 7, Jon Kabat-Zinn was featured at three special The New Medicine events sponsored by the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. The first, held at Cole Hall, was a grand rounds event for UCSF Faculty, medical students and the general public. Susan Folkman, Ph.D., introduced the event and gave special thanks to Bravewell for its support and announced The New Medicine broadcast. Fliers and post cards were handed out to all attendees.
According to Dr. Folkman, Director of OCIM, “it was a huge success… Jon Kabat-Zinn gave a masterful lecture and the audience was enthralled.” Cole Hall was standing room only, filled beyond its 300 person capacity. Dr. Kabat-Zinn discussed the practice of mindfulness in medicine. It was one of Osher’s most successful events as far as turn out and the enthusiastic responses it generated.
Following the grand rounds event, Dr. Zinn joined staff for a private lunch reception with close to 50 attendees. The New Medicine was again discussed and post cards were handed out.
On the evening of the February 7, a private dinner party for 18 was held at the home of one of Osher’s private donors where Kabat-Zinn was the guest of honor.
All three events were met with great enthusiasm and support. Several phone calls were received thanking Osher for the events and requesting additional information about the Center.
The public event was promoted widely, using the e-postcard which was sent to internal UCSF administrators of web pages and UCSF Public Affairs Department, to patients and members of public on the Osher Center distribution list, UCSF Medical students, the Schools of Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy as well as the American College of Chinese Medicine with a request to distribute to faculty and students and through internal listservs. Promotional information was posted on the UCSF Web site and flyers were printed and posted in public areas.
Farmington, Connecticut
University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC)
UCHC hosted and sponsored “The New Medicine—Optimizing Health & Healing through Mind-Body-Spirit Innovations” on Wednesday, February 22. The activity linked an Integrative Medicine Fair, from 4 – 7 p.m. with an evening of presentations and panel Q & A. Between 200-300 people came through the Fair, visiting 16 informational booths. Fifty people attended the evening presentations. According to Mary Guerrera, MD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, the event, which was designed to familiarize the public and the local health care community with integrative medicine, was very well-received. The fair featured more than a dozen integrative medicine practitioners who discussed and demonstrated their approaches to health and healing, including, yoga, hypnosis, energy therapy, Ayurveda and meditation. Health Center librarians were available to provide information on ways to locate accurate and up-to-date health and medical information.
Park Ridge, Illinois
Advocate Medical Group, Center for Complementary Medicine
On January 17 and 18, Advocate Medical Group’s Center for Complementary Medicine featured Mimi Guarneri, MD, Medical Director and Founder of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine speaking at an evening event for the general public, “A Natural Cardiologist’s Approach to Heart Disease” and at the Center's grand rounds. Seventy-five community members attended the public kick-off event and more than 100 physicians, nurses and allied health staff packed the auditorium for grand rounds the following afternoon. At grand rounds, Dr. Guarneri spoke on “Integrative Cardiology: An Evidence-Based Approach.” Each event included a screening of the six-minute clip of The New Medicine and served as Dr. Guarneri’s first book signing for The Heart Speaks.
The Daily Herald, interviewed Dr. Guarneri and published an article on integrative cardiology a few days after the events. The New Medicine video continued to be shown during the Center's monthly community lectures and was promoted in the March issue of the Center's newsletter, distributed to 2,700 patients and all 1,100 hospital physicians as well as being made available in physicians’ waiting rooms throughout the area. The January events were promoted through a special issue and insert in the newsletter.
On February 7, ten people attended a lecture by Donald Novey, MD, the Center’s Medical Director, on “Reducing Cardiac Risk.” On March 14, Clifford Kearns, the Center’s Doctor of Homeopathy gave a lecture for 22 attendees on “Diets Come Diets Go: Weight and Health Management.” Clips of TNM were shown at both events.
In addition, during the month of March, providers promoted The New Medicine during a variety of community lectures. Clips of TNM were shown, when possible, and postcards were handed out.
Baltimore, Maryland
Center for Integrative Medicine, Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine
University of Maryland Integrative Medicine hosted a series of events around The New Medicine including an open house and TNM screening for hospital staff, physicians, practitioners and the public.
On March 19 from 10 -2 p.m. UMIM, in partnership with Maryland Public Television (MPT) and the Jewish Community Center (JCC) sponsored a wellness event, “Take Charge of Your Health…A Wellness Event,” attended by more than 1,000. The JCC provided the venue and advertised the event to their 70,000 members. MPT sponsored the event as part of their healthy aging initiative. During the fair a short reel of The New Medicine documentary was shown with a follow-up panel discussion, Q & A and IM demonstrations. The event was advertised by the JCC, Maryland PTV and with an ad in the Jewish Times newspaper.
Following the health fair, an open house with IM demonstrations and information was held on March 23 at UM’s Kernan location. Over 100 employees, physicians and patients attended the event, which was very well received.
Dr. Brian Berman appeared on Maryland PTV’s weekly call-in talk show “Direct Connection” on March 20. The focus of this 30-minute program was integrative medicine and the upcoming TNM documentary.
Working with MPT, UMCIM provided volunteers to answer 270 calls—the most after-show calls—phone calls in response to The New Medicine broadcast. The phone bank was staffed by 25-30 CAM practitioners and physicians and was publicized during the broadcast with a scroll and an 800 number. Over 150 information packets on the Center and IM were mailed to callers. Maryland PTV posted the information about the phone bank on their Web site as well as include it in all their print ads and promotion. The phone bank was promoted with print ads, posters, advertising on the UMCIM Web site and in internal newsletters at both the University of Maryland Hospital and Kernan Orthopedics & Rehabilitation.
UMCIM created a post-card announcing all of its outreach events and mailed them to 5,000 homes as well as to every practitioner who was credentialed to see patients in their hospital. Postcards were mailed to individual contacts designated by each of the clinic providers and flyers were distributed to every employee in the hospital as well as to the various support groups and ambulatory service clinics located within the hospital. Posters were created and mounted in the UMCIM and throughout the hospital. In addition, two newsletters designed to educate people about UMIM and integrative medicine were distributed at the outreach events.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Abbott Northwestern, Institute of Health & Healing
Targeting health care professionals and the general public, Abbott Northwestern hosted a screening event and discussion of whole health approaches from childhood through adulthood. The event was held at the new Sheraton Hotel near the Institute of Health and Healing on March 31. Two distinguished practitioners in the field—David Rakel, MD, Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Integrative Medicine and Editor of Integrative Medicine, a text for health care providers and Timothy Culbert, MD, Medical Director of the Integrative Medicine Program for Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota—were the featured speakers at the event.
Abbott Northwestern also screened TNM clips at several of their own functions for staff as well as at the Institute for Health and Healing philanthropic venues.
University of Minnesota, Center for Spirituality and Healing
The Center for Spirituality and Healing reached out to health professionals, faculty, staff, physicians, state legislators, medical and health professional students as well as the University of Minnesota Wellness Collaborative to promote The New Medicine and the “Taking Charge of Your Health—My Health Planner,” which they co-developed for The New Medicine Web site.
On March 1, a screening of TNM was held for an expanded Community Advisory Board of approximately 100 health professionals at the McNamara Alumni Center. According to Cass McLaughlin, Outreach Coordinator, the event generated a lot of ideas for helping to promote The New Medicine. On March 24 staff development day for U of M School of Dentistry staff, an introduction to CAM and promotion of TNM and the Health Planner as well as a screening of TNM took place. On March 29, the Academic Health Center student group Integrative Health Education Action League held a viewing of TNM at the McNamara Center and provided dinner and discussion for medical and other health professional students.
Rochester, Minnesota
Mayo Clinic
Mayo held a Town Hall event on March 22 for local medical professionals and the community at large. Approximately fifty people attended the event which featured the 20-minute TNM clip followed by a five-member panel of medical and community leaders who spoke about the future of US health care within the context of The New Medicine clip. A recording of the event was screened for 75 people the following day.
The 20-minute clip was also shown at monthly seminar and program meetings for weeks around the broadcast date reaching approximately 200 people.
Events were promoted via e-postcards attached to e-mails over a two month period around the broadcast as well as use of the customizable flyers. Brent Bauer, MD, was interviewed by Mayo Communications and on March 27th, by KROC Radio.
Mayo plans an August follow-up Town Hall to coincide with Mayo’s CME Conference featuring Brian Berman, MD, as keynote. The goal is to build on what was learned by viewing The New Medicine.
Newark, New Jersey
University of Medicine & Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ)
Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (ICAM)
UMDNJ’s Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine The New Medicine outreach held two key events: a public lecture and distinguished lecture dinner event as part of their ongoing Wellness and Distinguished Lecture Series. Lynn Miller, JD, Director of Education at the Institute for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, reported that every seat was filled at the Wellness Lecture, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Multicultural Perspective,” held on February 15 on the Newark campus. Featuring Adam Perlman, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Director of the Institute for Complementary & Alternative Medicine, the event was well received, with many attendees rating it excellent and commenting that they couldn’t wait to see The New Medicine.
On Thursday, March 23, UMDNJ’s ICAM hosted a Distinguished Lecture, “Integrating Complementary & Alternative Medicine into Today’s Healthcare: The Challenges and Opportunities,” and dinner featuring Tracy Gaudet, MD, Director of Duke Center for Integrative Medicine. Sixty people attended the event, targeted to faculty, staff and students of UMDNJ’s Newark campus, and which included a screening of the 20-minute clip of The New Medicine and a panel discussion. The discussion, facilitated by Adam Perlman, MD, focused on the opportunities and challenges of integrating the “new medicine” into a medical practice with an emphasis on adopting a more preventative and humanistic as well as culturally-sensitive approach to health care. The panel included Tracy Gaudet, MD; Beatrix Roemheld-Hamm, MD, Director, Alternative Medicine, Family Medicine, RWJ Medical School; Dorian J. Wilson, MD, Director, Healthcare Foundation Center for Humanism and Medicine, NJ Medical School; and Ann Cotter, MD, Medical Director, Atlantic Mind Body Center, Morristown Memorial.
The event was a great success, with many in the audience staying long after the event was over to discuss the issues. “Very inspirational,” “What a wonderful panel of experts,” and “the video clip was very persuasive” were some of the audience comments.
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Section of Integrative Medicine (SIM)
University of New Mexico Health Science Center
UNM Health Science Center’s Section of Integrative Medicine extended IM to the local Hispanic and Native American communities by holding a day-long event titled the “Different Approaches to New Medicine in New Mexico” at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center on March 3. Arti Prasad, MD, chief, UNM Section of Integrative Medicine, reported that the event was a great success with 198 registrants.
The day kicked off with breakfast, a welcome, introduction and screening of The New Medicine preview reel. Eliseo Torres, UNM’s Vice President of Student Affairs, a practitioner of traditional folk healing, and author of several books on the subject, gave the keynote in Spanish. He was followed by Dr. Prasad speaking on integrative medicine at UNM. The rest of the day consisted of morning workshops on Feldenkrais, Nia, Qi-Gong and Native American Talking Circles which were repeated in the afternoon. A Spanish interpreter was used for the three sessions, which, according to Dr. Prasad, was very much appreciated by Spanish-speaking attendees.
Because many members of the New Mexico community are prevented from accessing holistic care due to cost and access barriers, SIM worked with community partners, Enlace Communitario, Southwest Creations Collaborative (SCC) and First Nations to reach the Native American community to attract these underserved audiences.
Finally, KNME taped three :30 promotional spots on March 22 with Dr. Prasad and UNM’s Family and Community Medicine physician, Brian Shelley, MD, which promoted The New Medicine and UNM’s Section of Integrative Medicine. The spots aired both prior to and after The New Medicine broadcast. KNME rebroadcast The New Medicine twice in April.
New York, New York
Continuum Center for Health & Healing (CCHH)
The Continuum Center for Health and Healing’s program consisted of a half-day workshop on April 8 at Phillips Ambulatory Care Conference Center and twelve two-hour monthly education classes that teach the use of mind-body interventions, specifically, guided imagery, aromatherapy and controlled breathing. These interventions facilitate relaxation and promote healing by reducing anxiety, stress, discomfort, and pain.
In the workshop, Dianne Serra, a nurse, licensed acupuncturist and mind/body specialist shared her current integrative work at the oncology center where she uses successfully uses stress reduction imaging for patients undergoing radiation therapy to the head. This is a situation in which the patients are strapped down to a metal table with their head immobilized by a “face net” for 20–30 thirty minute, holding their head still while they have stereotactic radiation therapy. Knowing it works in this highly stressful and frightening situation helped the audience understand how powerful these techniques are in dealing with stress. Serra’s workshops at the Oncology Center have grown as a result of The New Medicine workshop. Aurora DeCampo’s stress reduction workshop for pre-surgical patients is now overbooked by a month. As a result of the TNM grant, the Continuum Center has educated approximately 60 people in four classes.
The Center has had a dramatic increase in calls and inquiries about integrative medicine, mind/body medicine and many patients are calling for care based on the exposure to TNM. This has been sustained for several months since the airing.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Program on IM (PIM)
On February 23, the UNC Program on Integrative Medicine held a teleconference with a live Web cast for all Planetree hospitals. Thirty-one representatives from Planetree hospitals, representing 50–100 people throughout the country, joined the call. According to Susan Siegel, Project Development Manager of the Program on Integrative Medicine, “there was quite a lot of interest in our programs to educate medical students and residents on integrative medicine.” Teleconference speakers were Susan Gaylord, Ph.D., Director of the UNC Program on Integrative Medicine and J. Douglas Mann, MD, Clinical Services Director of the UNC Program on Integrative Medicine and Director of the Interdisciplinary Pain Management Clinic. Clinicians from the North Westchester Hospital (New York) IM program were invited to participate as well.
The Program staff also collaborated with Joe and Terry Graedon, Producers of The People’s Pharmacy, a syndicated radio series on health and wellness broadcast on 122 radio stations in 27 states, to produce a program on integrative medicine and self-care which aired on Saturday, March 4. The program featured Doug Mann, MD, and Tracy Gaudet, MD, Director of the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Mann and Dr. Gaudet spoke about the IM programs at their respective institutions and shared anecdotes about the use of integrative medicine with patients. The premiere of The New Medicine was promoted both on the show and on promos for that week’s broadcast.
Also, as part of the ongoing UNC PIM holds an Integrative Medicine Seminar Series held on the first Friday of each month, UNC held a March 3 seminar at The Wellness Center at Meadowmont, in Chapel Hill. Speakers included, UNC PIM’s J. Douglas Mann, MD, and Remy Coeytaux, MD, a family physician, epidemiologist, and medical acupuncturist, Duke CIM’s Evangeline Lausier, MD, a general internist from Duke General Internal Medicine in Durham and Michelle L. Bailey, MD, a general pediatrician and Medical Director of the Duke Health Center at Southpoint in Durham, NC, and a cancer survivor and patient of the UNC Integrative Medicine clinic who shared her experiences of conventional and integrative medicine. TNM clips were shown and the audience had an opportunity to ask questions and share comments. The program was followed by a reception including healthy snacks for the 35 attendees.
To further promote the activities and broadcast, information and links for TNM and the Web site were posted on the PIM Web site, and UNC paid for an advertisement for TNM in Health and Healing, a bi-monthly publication widely read by practitioners and consumers of CAM and IM in the Triangle area.
Durham, North Carolina
Duke Center for Integrative Medicine (DCIM)
DCIM , in partnership with the larger Duke Health System and UNC-TV, offered two, 90-minute public seminars entitled, “Harnessing the Power of the Mind/Body Connection Through Integrative Medicine.” The seminars were held on February 22 in Durham, March 15 in Chapel Hill and March 22 in Raleigh. Over 70 participants, including the general public and the Duke professional staff, attended the seminars which were designed to be both informative and experiential in nature. Over 100 people applied for twenty scholarships which were awarded for a free eight-day workshop, “The Mind Body Transformation.” A sample reel from The New Medicine was shown to promote the broadcast.
With Bravewell funding for Academic Consortia, DCIM also developed 500 educational/promotional stand-up displays, highlighting TNM and the seminar, which were distributed to local and regional physician offices in North and South Carolina and Virginia to promote these seminars, the TNM broadcast and Web site. In addition, full-page advertisements were placed in the Duke University independent student and faculty newspaper, The Chronicle, for a two-day period prior to the broadcast. Duke was managing national exposure to the “LaCrosse incident” during this timeframe, but DCIM felt it important to run the ads as the paper reaches a number of alumni as well.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine (AIIM)
The Alliance Institute actively promoted The New Medicine through events and outreach programs. On March 11, AIIM held two special events, titled: How the New Medicine May Help You to Reduce Pain, Heal and Thrive. Three AIIM physician acupuncturists (the medical director, an OB/GYN and Orthopedic Surgeon) spoke about the use of integrative medicine to help encourage the body’s natural healing abilities, as well as research-driven nutritional information, stress reduction techniques and the mind-body connection. The physicians referred to the upcoming PBS special throughout the event and the seven-minute media clip concluded the program. The response was outstanding. Flyers were given as a reminder to watch the documentary and to refer to the Web site. Promoted through a series of print ads, flyers within the hospital system, press releases, mass e-mail newsletters, the AIIM Web site (which receives approximately 1,200 hits/month) and 14,000 Health Alliance employees, the event drew 148 people and was very well received.
In addition, two physicians made inspiring presentations on The New Medicine for over 210 RNs, nursing students and faculty at the Christ Hospital during three events on March 14 and 15. A clip of TNM conclude the event which encouraged nurses to incorporate Integrative approaches into their patient care and allowed for CE credit. The response was overwhelmingly positive, receiving a 2.98 rating out of a scale of 1–3. In fact, during the Q & A sessions at the end, several nurses asked what they could do to encourage their hospitals to begin to use more direct, integrative approaches for their specific departments. And one faculty member required her clinical RN students to watch the PBS special on March 29 and complete a reflective writing assignment related to how it may impact their personal and professional lives.
Large print ads with information on The New Medicine documentary ran and flyers on the program were delivered to hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, physical therapy sites and many other facilities.
The New Medicine was previewed or discussed at six other AIIM events, including a Menopausal Event on February 4 at AIIM , “Integrative Medicine for Nurses’ Health: Care for the Caregivers,” and a presentation by two AIIM physicians for St. Luke Hospital held in Northern Kentucky on March 25. In addition, Sandi Amoils, MD was interviewed on WVXU-FM public radio on March 25 and Claudia Harsh, MD, was interviewed on WMUV-FM on March 22. Both mentioned The New Medicine.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine
JMBCIM expanded its newly developed out-patient stress reduction program for cancer patients to the in-patient bone marrow transplant unit at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) beginning on March 7. The goal was to complement the care these patients receive at Jefferson by working in conjunction with their regular medical team of physicians, nurses and social workers. The program, called mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT), consists of six sessions that occurred on Tuesdays and Fridays in the unit. At the request of the bone marrow transplant team, patients who are preparing to be admitted to the unit are also allowed to come on-site and participate in the program.
MBAT was originally developed for an outpatient population; this program allows JMBCIM to offer a specialized psychosocial program to a highly distressed group and to pilot test the feasibility of doing so in an inpatient setting. The program has been well received in JMBCIM’s cancer center, and they are about to start their second NIH-funded clinical trial on MBAT, with a particular focus on breast cancer patients. They have recently published the encouraging results of our first clinical trial in Psycho-Oncology.
WHYY produced a feature on this work for local broadcast. JMBCIM also held four half-day “Mindfulness at Work” workshops (March 20 for Jefferson University Hospital staff; March 22 for hospital administration; March 23 for healthcare professionals; and March 29 for nursing and graduate nursing students).
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM) at UPMC Shadyside
In March, CIM will hold two workshops on "Cardiac Coherence & Emotional
Mastery," a counseling approach that bridges physiology and emotional awareness
and management. The workshops will be presented by Jennifer Day, founder and
director of Applied Emotional Mastery, Inc. and consultant to CIM. This approach,
described in Instinct to Heal, a bestseller by CIM former medical director,
David Servan-Schreiber, is used for stress management, anxiety symptoms and
depression as well as improving school performance, work productivity, attendance
and job satisfaction.
One workshop will be targeted to direct care, clinical and administrative employees from the UPMC Health System and designed to increase awareness of how emotional awareness and management can improve clinicians and staff's ability to interact more effectively in their work. The other, a two-hour evening educational program, will be presented for interested community members and will help attendees understand the potential difficulties in identifying one's own emotions and how this may compound stress and relationship problems. Additionally, they will learn breathing techniques and other exercises that can assist with emotional management and improved stress management.
Galveston, Texas
University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB)
UTMB plans to bring people together from all areas of healthcare and the local
community to participate in a series of eight interdisciplinary Journal Club
forums designed to discuss issues, scientific articles and events related to
alternative and integrative care. The forums, which will start in February and
then run monthly April through October (February 28, March 28, April 25, June
27, July 25, August 22, September 26, October 24-the latter two are funded by
other sponsors and will address IM), will use clips and content from The
New Medicine as triggers for discussion. Using an evidence-based approach,
the screenings and related articles will be examined for issues of methodology,
experimental design, statistical analysis and general clarity. The forums will
be held at the China Border in Galveston.
Seattle, Washington
University of Washington, Department of Family Medicine
On Tuesday, March 21st, James Gordon, MD, author of Manifesto for a New Medicine,
will screen a preview of The New Medicine as part of a conversation of
a philosophy of care that integrates all aspects of health, mind, body, and
spirit. Sponsored by the University of Washington School of Medicine, Bravewell
Collaborative, and Seattle's Town Hall, the event will take place in downtown
Seattle at the Town Hall venue.