Model of Integrative Care In An Academic Health Center

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this application is to develop a replicable model of integrative care within an academic medical center. This application builds upon efforts already underway at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) to design and implement such a model. Our integrative care center, currently planned to open at the BIDMC in the year 2002, is intended to serve as a prototype to be refined and replicated at other hospitals regionally and nationally. It is also intended to provide research data for the newly established HMS Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. The philanthropic community has already committed funding to support the building and staffing of this model center at BIDMC. The purpose of this NIH application is to insure the transferability of the model; and, to test its capacity to generate scientifically useful clinical and financial data. The specific aims are as follows: I. In Phase I, to develop model strategies and hospital procedures necessary to open an integrative care center within an academic health center. These strategies and procedures will address a variety of issues including credentialing, liability, pharmacy and therapeutics guidelines, data tracking, billing, administrative requirements, efficient patient triage as well as barriers relating to inter-professional team building. 2. In Phase II, to implement and refine these strategies in the operation of an integrative care clinical facility within an academic health center; namely, the BIDMC, a major teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. 3. In Phase III, to demonstrate our ability to evaluate the effectiveness of care provided by the Integrative Care Center in a pilot RCT involving hospital employees and managed care patients disabled by low back pain. We will also document the costs of treating back pain using the integrative approach vs. the usual care approach. 4. In Phase IV, to review the results of our pilot study to design a subsequent full-scale trial with adequate statistical power; to summarize the cost of building and sustaining this model: and, to document our strategies and disseminate our procedures, enabling transfer and refinement of the model at other sites.