S2 Ep 1 - How Do the Doctors of Tomorrow Train in the US Today? Behind the Scenes of Integrative Medical Education with Alisha Harrington

This marks the beginning of season 2 where I explore how to make integrative medicine possible in our healthcare system from the inside out. In this episode, I sit down with my guest, Alisha Harrington, to talk about how doctors are trained today, how we combined two models of medicine in our training to deliver whole-person care, and how we imagine changing medical education to create the integrative physicians of tomorrow.

Alisha and I are each trained in Chinese and Western medicine, but we had to gather our training in different ways. Alisha is currently a fourth-year medical student at Western University COMP Northwest, an osteopathic school in Oregon. She is training to become a board-certified family physician after practicing as a licensed acupuncturist for nine years. I, on the other hand, went to medical school and residency, first, to become a family doctor, and then trained in Chinese medicine to become board certified in both fields.

 Rethinking Medical Education 

Imagine a healthcare world where you have the choice to get healthcare from one doctor with training in both traditional Western medicine and Chinese medicine. I’m not talking about a wellness clinic because most of these clinics are made up of practitioners trained in different ways and they bill you separately. If you have struggled to coordinate your healthcare team or spent as much on your health from both conventional and unconventional practitioners, you are not alone. In fact, this problem has been around for decades. 

A 1993 landmark study from the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in 1990 “Americans made an estimated 425 million visits to providers of unconventional therapy. This number exceeds the number of visits to all US primary care physicians (388 million.)” Nearly 30 years later, little has changed in the demand for additional types of care and there are far too few medical doctors who practice more than just traditional medicine. 

 The Impacts on Your Third Opinion 

Integrative medicine is an approach to healthcare that brings together conventional ( or Western medicine), lifestyle and complementary medicines (like Chinese medicine) in a strategic way to address the whole person. That’s like giving your auto mechanic more tools and knowledge to choose from when working on your car rather than having to take your car to two different mechanics to fix it. If your doctor knows about other types of medicine, especially ones you are seeking, they are more likely to listen to you and guide you to a healthier self.

 If you want your physician to be able to practice integrative medicine, a lot needs to change in the healthcare system. The most fundamental changes have to start with the way people are trained as doctors. Did you know that there are no medical schools in the US that offer both kinds of training unless someone does this on their own by completing separate programs? That’s not only expensive, it’s preventing most physicians today from even considering it. The history of this is really complex, the separation of these types of medicine was intentional, and it’s worth knowing about how and why it happened.

You can learn about it in an upcoming season 2 episode. Stay tuned!

 In this episode, Alisha Harrington and I discuss: 

• The definition of an osteopathic doctor
• The difference between how medical and osteopathic doctors are trained
• The difference between training as an acupuncturist and as a physician
• How rigorous medical training is for traditional doctors and the sacrifices they make to their personal health, which leads to:

1. Increased rate of physician suicide
2. Poor lifestyle
3. Not being a good role model for patients

• What makes integrative training so beneficial for patients and doctors
• How integrative medical schools might be possible
• More reform should happen in the way doctors are trained in order to:

1. build resilience
2. prevent burnout
3. Address patients needs on a more holistic and individual level

Resources 

My blog post helps you understand the different types of medicine like osteopathic,

traditional Western, and Chinese medicine

New England Journal Of Medicine report in 1993 on the patterns of use of nontraditional medicine in 1990 compared with traditional medicine: Unconventional Medicine in the United States --Prevalence, Costs, and Patterns of Use