HEALTH SERVICE RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in Salons 10-12.

THURSDAY, 5:30-6:15 PM

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Rodriguez AI, Pocock JR, Ball RM, Levine RA.

Tracking health outcomes of complementary and alternative medicine treatments in an integrative medicine center.

Henry Ford Health System albar@tampabay.rr.com

While complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) usage by US consumers has increased dramatically over the last decade, integrative medicine that incorporates CAM modalities remains largely outside of mainstream healthcare. Resistance to CAM often occurs from lack of proof of efficacy and cost savings. In addition to providing proof of efficacy via randomized, controlled clinical trials in CAM, collecting health and cost outcomes data in a clinical delivery setting can demonstrate real-world effectiveness of CAM modalities. The Henry Ford Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM) is a research-oriented CAM clinic integrated within the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) that offers numerous therapeutic modalities including acupuncture, hypnosis, nutritional consults, neuromuscular and massage therapy, movement reeducation and chiropractic. Since all treatment costs at the CIM (with the exception of chiropractic) are paid by patients, the majority of the patient population consists of people with chronic problems who have not been helped by insurance-covered, conventional medical approaches. In addition to conducting various controlled, clinical trials, we are also collecting health and cost outcomes data on all patients prior to, during, and following CAM treatments using published, validated outcome measures, to measure pain (numeric rating scale), general health (SF-12), back-specific health (North American Spine Society pain and function instrument), headache (HFHS headache disability inventory), among others. Conditions treated include chronic back pain and other structural pain, headache, fibromyalgia, gastro-intestinal dysfunction, other neuropathies, cancer, mental/emotional disorders, etc. Our hypothesis is that data collected pre- and post-treatment will demonstrate that CAM modalities are effective for significantly reducing pain and disability and improving general health status. Data collected to date in over 800 patients show substantial, statistically significant improvements in patients' health outcomes following CAM treatments. Systematic collection of health and cost outcomes data in a major healthcare system: 1) increases acceptance and support from healthcare organizations and staff, 2) provides support for randomized clinical trials testing effective CAM therapies, and 3) provides opportunities for collaborations with other integrative medicine clinics worldwide to collectively examine health and cost outcomes using this standardized methodology.

 

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