American Board of Holistic Medicine Gives Birth to Medicine's Newest Specialty.

Business Editors, Health/Medical Writers

DENVER--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 4, 2000

From December 3 to 6, over 400 physicians are attending the first board certification review course in holistic medicine at the Adams Mark Hotel.

The course will be followed on December 7 by the first board certification examination.

Created by the American Board of Holistic Medicine (ABHM) and co-sponsored by the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, this course will help to prepare licensed M.D.s and D.O.s (doctors of osteopathic medicine) to become physician-healers.

Applying both conventional and alternative therapies, these board-certified physicians will be equipped to 1) treat the whole person -- body, mind, and spirit; 2) address the causes of disease as well as treat symptoms; 3) guide their patients toward a condition of optimal health while effectively treating their chronic ailments; and 4) to practice on themselves and their patients in accord with the fundamental principle of holistic medicine: unconditional love is life's most powerful healer.

The practice of holistic medicine is highly effective in treating the more than 100 million Americans suffering from a variety of chronic conditions -- from arthritis and sinusitis to heart disease and menopause. It is primarily for this reason that nearly 50 percent of the American population is regularly using some type of alternative therapy while making 629 million visits per year to alternative practitioners. This number is almost double the number of the combined visits to all primary care physicians. People are spending nearly $27 billion on the therapies and office visits, and most of these expenses are not reimbursed by insurance. (All of these statistics come from a study that appeared in the Journal of the AMA, Nov. '98.)

However, by setting a new standard of care, certification in holistic medicine is already beginning to have a profound impact on the health care industry. Holistic medical treatment is a cost-effective approach that both helps to reduce the need for hospitalization, surgery, medication, and diagnostic tests -- and satisfies the public's demand for relief of their suffering. It, therefore, has begun to attract the interest of HMOs, the large self-insured employers, and hospitals creating integrative medical centers. Holistic medicine is expanding the model of both the primary care and the specialist physician for the 21st century.

The co-directors of the board review course, Robert A. Anderson, M.D., and Robert S. Ivker, D.O., have been family physicians for a combined 70 years. They are also the co-authors of the book, The Self-Care Guide to Holistic Medicine (Tarcher/Putnam). The ABHM is an independently constituted medical board, founded in Seattle in 1996 to provide a basic scientific standard for the credentialing of holistic physicians in the U.S. The ABHM may be contacted by fax, 425/787-8040, or email: [e-mail].