Integrative Medicine Teaching Tools Have Worldwide Reach

Four years ago, the Department of Family Medicine’s (DFM) Integrative Medicine (IM) Program launched Web-based training materials to help educate its faculty, fellows, residents, and patients on healing-oriented approaches to health.

Now, these teaching tools are used all over the country—and as far away as Spain and Scotland—to train primary care physicians and clinicians in other specialties, support corporate health initiatives, and help patients integrate complementary and alternative therapies into their lives.

A Variety of Teaching Tools

The teaching tools take several different forms: comprehensive educational modules, individual handouts for clinicians and patients, Supplement Samplers, and clinical newsletters.

Educational modules. To date, the IM program has produced 10 comprehensive educational modules on common topics in primary care, such as cholesterol management, depression, and hypertension. Seven more modules are in development.

Each module has four components: 1) an overview for clinicians, 2) a handout containing evidence-based information for clinicians, 3) an audio podcast or a video for clinicians highlighting “clinical pearls,” and 4) one or more patient handouts that translate this information for a non-medical audience. Access the modules at http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/integrative/modules.

Individual handouts. The team has written 22 standalone handouts for patients and three for clinicians on a variety of topics, such as an elimination diet, anti-inflammatory diet, improving the sleep/wake cycle, and breathing exercises. More handouts continue to be added. Access the handouts at http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/integrative/modules.

Supplement Samplers. The program has also produced over two dozen “Supplement Samplers” for clinicians that describe current knowledge about supplements. They continue to add new ones.  Access at http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/integrative/supplement-samplers.

Clinical newsletters. Six IM clinical newsletters written earlier are also available via the website.   Access at http://www.fammed.wisc.edu/integrative/newsletter.

Information That’s Credible—and Free  

All of these materials are available for free download from the DFM’s Web site. “I’m not aware of any place that has done something this comprehensive on these topics,” remarked Charlene Luchterhand, MSSW, who manages the project and has helped develop many of the modules.

“Our goal is to be of service,” explained David Rakel, MD, who directs the IM program and who originally envisioned the project. “We want to provide tools for techniques that focus not just on reducing symptoms, but also on exploring the root causes—nonphysical, emotional, spiritual—of those symptoms.”

“Right now we want to make sure that information is free and available to everyone,” he added.

Rakel and Luchterhand have enlisted the help of their faculty and fellow colleagues, plus residents and medical students engaged in their IM elective rotation, to research and write the educational materials. 

Each patient handout is written with readability in mind and is reviewed by DFM integrative medicine faculty who are fellowship trained and board-certified in integrative holistic medicine. “We want to give people the information they want, and also be clear about where the research stands,” said Luchterhand.

“Our DFM information technology staff have been most supportive of our outreach efforts,” reports Luchterhand. “We obviously could not do such a web-based project without their assistance.”

National and International Reach

At the DFM and beyond, the training materials educate faculty, fellows, residents, and patients on IM approaches and therapies.

Dr. Rakel has shared them with peers at the Consortium of Academic Medical Centers for Integrative Medicine, a group of 45 institutions in the US and Canada that are incorporating IM into their medical education curricula.

At one of those institutions, Boston University School of Medicine, “the headache, cholesterol, and hypertension modules are most used,” said Paula Gardiner, MD, MPH, an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine there. “We love them!” she added.

Both Luchterhand and Dr. Rakel have received email inquiries about the materials from physicians throughout the US and Europe, some of whom found them through their own internet searches. Many want to use the modules in their practices; others want to share related research.

Even health care consultants have approached the team about using the modules in employee health programs. 

Web site statistics underscore this reach. From June 2010 through May 2011, the module handouts, the individual handouts, the Supplement Samplers, and the clinical newsletters were accessed a total of over 127,000 times.

“It’s great that this is catching on and being used at other universities and clinics across the country,” Dr. Rakel said. “It’s also very heartwarming to go to national meetings and hear people say, ‘I use your handouts all the time.’”

This project was supported by grants from the UW-Health Ambulatory Care Innovation Grant Program and the Weil Foundation.