The Institute is particularly interested in health as the means by which our society and all individuals, regardless of age or state of wellness, can realize their full potential. Through a wide range of initiatives, the Institute aims to enrich our understanding of what constitutes health and explore novel ways to promote it. Institute projects focus on advancing science, developing health promotion strategies and technologies, and bridging scientific knowledge with everyday life by actively engaging the public through unique outreach.
By disseminating thought-provoking and meaningful information, we seek to inspire cultural change and public demand for an integrative approach to health in our society. We are continually assembling working groups and outreach vehicles with the intention of linking together thought leaders and experts across disciplines to generate discussion and solutions to the tough problems impacting health and wellness. Current initiatives include:
An unprecedented emergence of new technologies and software applications are connecting people in revolutionary ways through the use of online forums and social networking. The SpeakHealth site is taking advantage of the latest developments in social networking and new media to explore how each of us think about our health and how we as a culture think about health, healthcare and medicine. The site is essentially an expanded blog, but one in which many voices discuss many issues. Speak Health uses narrative video segments to build a discourse around the issue of health care in America. The resulting web-based community is prompting people to reflect upon, discuss, and rethink their relationship to their own health, and to healthcare overall. This project - which is a collaboration between the Institute for Integrative Health, the Imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and InfoCulture - hopes to identify new forms of media that can be effective at weaving knowledge into culture and inspiring activity beyond the more traditional means of interaction.
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Conversations on Health
Conversations on Health is part of the Institute's mission of engaging the public in unique ways. This project includes an ongoing schedule of in-person discussions among key stakeholders in healthcare and provides a confidential space to discuss some of today's most important questions, including "What is health?" and "How can healthcare be re-envisioned to meet the real health needs of the nation?" This dialogue is invaluable in developing new knowledge while sensitizing the general public and decision makers alike to the importance of Integrative Medicine in solving the healthcare crisis in the U.S. Among participants in the first twelve Conversations on Health (Fall 2008 - Summer 2009) were physicians, health care policy experts, corporate leaders, a nurse-midwife, a social worker, and an attorney. A summary and synthesis of themes impacting the Institute's future direction can be foundby clicking here.
The lessons learned from the Conversations helped to inform the testimony of Dr. Brian Berman and Susan Berman submitted to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Hearing on "Principles of Integrative Health: a Path to Health Care Reform" (February 23, 2009). We had an increased awareness of the issues that needed to be brought to the attention of policy makers and reformers, which included:
- improving consumer access to health information;
- supporting better reimbursement for primary care and prevention, covering a broader range of health care practitioners and health care modalities;
- investing in research that has direct impact on translating knowledge into prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease; and
- transforming health care at the front line by recognizing the five influential areas of health which are the environment, behavior, genetics, social circumstances and health care. As an example of the latter point, we were able to share some of the efforts, such as Howard County Health Department's Healthy Howard Initiative and Lockheed Martin's LMHealthWorks program, that are already promoting wellness and providing resources for enhancing the health of citizens.
Public Speaking Engagements & Presentations
Our leadership team frequently speaks before national and international healthcare audiences, including the Royal College of Physicians, the American Psychosomatic Society, the Middle East Cancer Consortium, the Society for Integrative Oncology, and the National Institutes of Health, among others. Future plans include the development of a speakers' series.
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