A Time of Great Transition and Reformation
Posted on | January 15, 2009 | 1 Comment
Gregg Hake, CEO | Energetix Corporation
We are living in a time of great transition and reformation. Structures and institutions worldwide are under pressure to change to meet the demands of the new consumer in this new century. The medical establishment, as an example, is experiencing seismic shifts at every level. The United States spends more of its GDP on medical care than any other industrialized nation, yet our health statistics are comparably substandard.
Doctors are increasingly disenchanted with their profession, often citing the crippling constraints of the insurance-dominated medical field. In fact, in a recent survey of U.S. primary care physicians produced by the Physician’s Foundation, nearly half of the respondents said that they would seriously consider getting out of the medical business within the next three years if they had an alternative.1
Patients are dissatisfied too. Americans are desperate for new solutions as employers cut back on insurance benefits and premiums climb to exorbitant levels. More and more Americans are experimenting – some willingly due to curiosity and some led by an invisible hand – with preventative measures and alternative modalities and the volume of interest has drawn drug companies, regulators and medical doctors scrambling to see how they can participate. Some 38% of American adults and 12% of American children are using some form of CAM and that is without an organized effort and generally without insurance reimbursement!2)
CAM Use by Age - 2007
Is some form of universal healthcare the answer? What the new Administration does with health care will likely be interesting, yet it will take many years to develop and implement a new system. In the meantime, we have an obligation to our fellow citizens based on our training, our resources and our compassion. After having been nearly wiped out by the repercussions of the Flexner Report some 100 years ago, many of the so-called “complementary and alternative” (CAM) approaches to health and wellness are enjoying resurgence in popularity. Medical education is again being called under question, and many of the underpinnings of the current model seen as truths just months ago are gradually being called into question and reexamined.
Prior to the 1900s, when modalities such as homeopathy and osteopathy were commonplace, such practices were not seen as “alternative.” In fact, they were an essential part of the fabric of public medicine. There were 22 homeopathic schools in 1900 at revered educational institutions such as Boston University and the University of Michigan, not to mention the numerous Hahnemann schools around the country.3 That number decreased to 15 by 1910 and the remaining basically disappeared after the Flexner Report was published. The practitioners of homeopathy and osteopathy and nutrition were caught on their heels due to subpar education, lax practices and probably a measure of complacency and they unfortunately missed the signs that times were changing.
So now we write the pages of the new era. Here are some fundamental starting points that I see for how we can be most effective moving forward.
#1 – Proper Nutrition, Exercise and Rest is Primary Healthcare
What does this mean to us, here and now? For starters, such perspective vision affords us a tremendous opportunity to participate in the restoration of the dignity of our healing profession and traditions. To me, proper nutrition, proper exercise and proper rest can safely be considered primary healthcare. The hospitals, the specialists, the surgeons, etc., are the alternative and are complementary to a balanced approach to living!#2 – Don’t be Fooled…It is not ‘Us’ against ‘Them’!
So often in our profession there is the attempt to rally against or rage against the “machine,” aka the modern medical establishment. Such resistance is futile and fundamentally counterproductive. One needn’t look far back in history to see how such an approach nearly destroyed the practice of homeopathy, chiropractic, and many other valuable healing approaches.We needn’t fight one another, in fact, the energy wasted on such efforts in training, education speaking and action could more purposefully be used in building the bridges that link the two approaches in ways that enhance the patient experience and improve the healing process. The two approaches are not mutually exclusive and both have their place.
#3 – Make Better use of the Time and Money You Have Committed in Your Training
Practitioners who see themselves as a part of a team with their patients, as health facilitators, typically have the most sustainable and rewarding practices. As a health facilitator, the onus of responsibility for wellbeing lies squarely in the hands of the patient. The practitioner is there to provide resources. Testing, treatment approaches, remedies and adjunct products that encourage and support the healing process are all within arm’s reach. If the general public trusts a part-time sales clerk in the nutrition department of Whole Foods or Wal-Mart, they most certainly will appreciate the recommendations and products that are on your “approved” list and available at your clinic!#4 – Carpe Diem!
The greatest opportunities are often found in times of chaos and instability. As was mentioned above, we live in turbulent times. The foundations of the medical establishment are being shaken and interest has surged in preventative approaches to wellbeing. The “Whole Foods Phenomenon” and the rapid rise of the Spa industry and the “Spa Culture” have set our industry up for what could be the greatest leaps forward for natural approaches to wellbeing that we have ever seen. Please, do your part and seize the day! The health of your practice, the longevity of your profession and the wellbeing of our fellows depends on it.
For more information on this topic please join Gregory Hake and Chuck Reddick in the upcoming webinar entitled: Increasing your Business in Challenging Economic Times on January 21, 2009 from 2-3pm EDT.
- 1 Willingham, Val “Half of primary-care doctors in survey would leave medicine” CNN, 18 Nov. 2008 http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/primary.care.doctors.study/ [↩]
- 2 http://nccam.nih.gov/news/camstats/2007/camsurvey_fs1.htm (January 2009 [↩]
- 3 Abraham Flexner, Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Boston, The Merrymount Press, 1910), pp. 160-161. [↩]
Tags: bioenergetic > EAV > homeopathic > natural healing > nutritional > wellness
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February 4th, 2009 @ 9:49 am
This article is so inspiring not just for healthcare providers but for the public as well. Across the board there is a need for reform in healthcare and I believe the best place to start is working as a team which includes the public, allopathic care, and holistic/primary care practitioners. Each of us have a piece of the picture and when working together towards the bigger vision we will make greater progress.