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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – TUCSON, Ariz., Aug. 5, 2013 – The University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine(AzCIM) has launched the first national online pediatric integrative medicine (PIM) curriculum, designed to embed PIM education into residency training.
“The program is the first of its kind in pediatrics and will allow pediatric residents to learn integrative approaches along with their conventional medical training,” said HilaryMcClafferty, MD, FAAP, director of thePediatric Integrative Medicine in Residency(PIMR) and assistant fellowship director atAzCIM. “We are thrilled to have such a strong group of pilot sites involved and hope this pilot project will help propel the wave of interest and momentum building in this important field of pediatrics.”
The pilot program rollout of PIMR includes nearly 350 pediatric residents and faculty at Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of Kansas, Eastern Virginia Medical School Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, as well as at theUniversity of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.
“We as pediatricians need to become more familiar with integrative medicine so we can better counsel our families, many of whom already are using complementary and alternative remedies,” said Graciela Wilcox, MD, clinical assistant professor and faculty advisor for the PIMR program at the UA Department of Pediatrics. “The Pediatric Integrative Medicine in Residency program is a valuable training tool for our residents as they learn to think critically about integrative approaches to pediatric health.”
PIMR is unique in that it is 100 hours of competency-based, needs-assessment driven interactive curriculum designed for use by multiple residency programs simultaneously. The curriculum includes nutrition, mind-body medicine, integrative approaches to mental health, sleep, whole medical systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and naturopathy, physical activity, behavior and lifestyle change, environmental medicine and a full course on physician health and wellness.
Many of the 80 AzCIM Fellowship in Integrative Medicine pediatric alumni will serve as content experts and resident mentors. John D. Mark, MD, clinical professor of pediatrics in pediatric pulmonary medicine at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine, is an alumnus of the AzCIM Fellowship who is, associate program director of the Pediatric Residency Program and will be faculty lead for the PIMR pilot at Stanford University, guiding pediatric residents through the foundational IM work and self-care curriculum.
“It is known that if the health-care provider is mindful about how they live, eat, exercise, decrease stress and avoid professional burnout, their patients and families benefit as well, with better health outcomes,” said Dr. Mark. “PIMR gives the pediatric residents at Stanford the tools and resources to learn beyond what is taught in the traditional pediatric residency program.”
“We are proud to participate in the Pediatric Integrative Medicine in Residency program offered by the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine,” said Fayez K. Ghishan, MD, professor and head of the UA Department of Pediatrics. “We believe our residents will benefit immensely from learning about the many integrative approaches to pediatric health.”
PIM is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and defined as healing oriented medicine that takes account of the whole infant, child or adolescent, including all elements of lifestyle and family health. It emphasizes the powerful triad of child-family-practitioner, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapies.
The early adopter enrollment in PIMR is anticipated to open in July 2014.
For more information about the Pediatric Integrative Medicine in Residency program, contact Emily Sherbrooke, Integrative Medicine in Residency program coordinator,[email protected] or 520-626-1539.
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About the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
The University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (AzCIM) is leading the transformation of health care by creating, educating and actively supporting a community that embodies the philosophy and practice of healing-oriented medicine, addressing mind, body and spirit. Integrative medicine takes account of all lifestyle factors that influence health and makes use of conventional and complementary therapies, as appropriate. Since its inception, the AzCIM has focused its efforts on three areas: education, clinical care and research, with the primary emphasis on education. AzCIM was built on the premise that the best way to change a field is to educate the most gifted professionals and place them in settings where they can teach others. To learn more about AzCIM, please visit www.azcim.org
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