DATE/TIME: THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 3 P.M.
PLACE: Reflections at the Buttes, 9800 N. Oracle Road
(Phone: (520) 229-0627)
CONTACT: Sue South, (520) 626-5536
The University of Arizona Program in Integrative Medicine will celebrate another milestone in the pioneering program's history when it holds a graduation ceremony for its first class of Associate Fellows.
The UA Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, the nation's first Web-based educational model in integrative medicine, began in August 2000. Each year, 50 physicians from around the world begin the two-year Associate Fellowship. Each class of Fellows meets for three, one-week sessions in Tucson; the remainder of the Fellowship is a "distributed-learning experience," in which participants learn via the Internet in the comfort of their own home or office, at times most convenient for them.
Directed by internationally noted integrative medicine pioneer Andrew Weil, MD, the UA Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) was established in 1994. PIM's first continuing education offering was introduced in January 1995. In October of the following year, a medical director was hired, a curriculum was modeled, a faculty was built, a clinic was created and the first class of (residential) Fellows was selected. The residential fellowship, the first of its kind in the nation, began in July 1997.
The Associate Fellowship builds upon those initial efforts by responding to the great demand among practicing physicians for training in integrative medicine -- but at the same time allowing them to remain in their hometowns and continue their clinical practices during the training.
This two-year program, which includes 1,000 hours of instruction, emphasizes clinical applications and collaboration to establish a broad knowledge base that will transfer into clinical practice.
The Associate Fellowship curriculum utilizes patient simulations; collaborative dialogues; research updates and dialogues; problem-solving exercises; selected readings; group projects and presentations. The focus is on the practical application of approaches that have scientific evidence and/or a history of traditional use. Methods of healing are explored, and physicians gain the ability to discuss these areas with both their patients and the practitioners of these disciplines. Associate Fellows explore the Art of Medicine; Philosophy of Medicine; Medicine and Culture; Mind-body Interactions; Nutrition; Botanicals; Physical Activity; Spirituality; Leadership; and Legal Issues.
"The Associate Fellowship graduation is a major milestone for our program and for our patients," says Victoria Maizes, MD, Executive Director of the UA Program in Integrative Medicine. "Thanks to the Associate Fellowship, there are now a substantial number of integrative medicine physicians across the nation better able to tend to their patients' needs."
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