by lisa marshall
envisioning
the future of
HEALTHCARE
As a tie-dye-clad, free-spirited medical student of the ’60s with a fascination for botanical remedies, Chinese
medicine and mind-body healing, young Andrew Weil quickly developed a distaste for traditional medicine as
practiced in the West. “I was dismayed at the lack of connection with the natural world, the complete ignorance
about botanicals and the utter absence of interest in any mind-body connection,” recalls Dr. Weil, who graduated
from Harvard Medical School in 1968 as a medical doctor, with no intention to ever practice medicine. “I left there
completely unprepared to help people stay well. I got very discouraged.”
Now, 40 years later, this bestselling author, internationally renowned physician and founder of the Arizona Cen-
ter for Integrative Medicine has channeled his discontent into action. Weil is among those pioneering a burgeon-
ing new kind of medicine that many insist holds the answer to our nation’s healthcare woes.
I
ntegrative medicine, a thoughtful based stress reduction. As of this year, to explore where this new form of
blend of conventional medicine, eight major medical schools require medicine is taking us. Days later, a
common sense prevention and that students take part in a 250-hour congressional health committee was
modalities once dubbed alternative, integrative medicine curriculum as calling on Weil—once a dark horse
such as acupuncture, meditation, part of their residency. among his medical colleagues—for
breath work and dietary supplements, According to the American Hospital testimony about how to fix the na-
has caught on widely from coast to Association, 16 percent of hospi- tion’s crumbling healthcare system.
coast in the past decade, both among tals, including medical facilities at His answer: Stop focusing so
consumers and once-skeptical health- Harvard and Duke universities, now much on making our current system
care practitioners. The Association of feature integrative medicine centers. more accessible via insurance reform,
American Medical Colleges reports Of those that don’t, 24 percent plan and instead, create a new system.
that 113 of the nation’s 126 medical to offer them in the future. “What we have is not a health-
schools now include discussion of In February 2009, the Institute care system at all; it is a disease
complementary and alternative thera- of Medicine, once leery of all things management system,” advises Weil.
pies in conventional medical courses. alternative, held a momentous two- “Making the current system cheaper
Seventy-seven offer standalone elec- day summit, Integrative Medicine and more accessible will just spread
tives in such approaches as traditional and the Health of the Public, inviting the dysfunction more widely. What we
Chinese medicine and mindfulness- 600 policymakers and practitioners need is a new kind of medicine.”
8 Phoenix
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48