National Study Shows WELLNESS CENTER® Ready for Future of Integrative Medicine
A recent national study shows results that support Inner Harmony Wellness Center's apporach to Integrative Medicine. This study shows how Integrative Medicine is emerging and partnering with conventional medicine to create a new type of medicine that more and more patients will turn to in the future.
(PRWEB) June 24, 2004
Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® and the Center for Integrative Medicine are ready for the emergence of a new type of health care that focuses on Integrative Medicine. This according to the findings from a recent study conducted by Clohesy Consulting.
The study, “Mapping the Emergence of Integrative Medicine,” shows that more and more patients are seeking out integrated and patient-based health care systems, to help treat illnesses and create an overall better quality of life.
With the current health care system in crisis, patients are looking for alternatives to conventional treatment and for more personable consultations. Also, thanks to growing research and findings of the connections between mind, body and spirit, patients, or consumers as many in alternative medicine refer to them, are seeking out a more holistic approach to treatment, all in an effort to achieve an overall sense of well being and health.
Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® President and Founder, Peter Amato, took part in the survey and interview portion of the study last year. He sees the findings of the study as confirmation that Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® is on the verge of solidifying itself as the type of health care provider the majority of people are looking for.
“The findings of this study affirm that we have been leaders in this movement, this challenge of creating a more integrated medicine,” Amato explains, pointing to the many services that Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® and the Center for Integrative Medicine offer. These include treatments that combine conventional and complementary medicines for treatments of modern-day diseases and disorders.
The results of the study show a variety of ways in which complementary and alternative medicine can and does work with conventional medicine to create a complete package of health care services for the patient. The study also shows how successful institutes and clinics, like the Scranton-based WELLNESS CENTER®, have been able to start and become successful.
“We have always had a clear mission and vision with what we wanted to do at the WELLNESS CENTER®,” states Amato, who founded the center in 1997. “The formation of the Center for Integrative Medicine and our expansion into primary care has enabled us to reach a variety of patients and create programs of health where our practitioners treat the mind, body, spirit and environment of the patient.”
He adds, “At the same time, we’ve fostered a system where patients are integral in their own health and treatment. Patient education and participation is paramount in an integrated medicine system. The Clohesy study points to an increase in consumer-driven health care, because patients are becoming more educated and interested in a variety of treatment options.”
The study was commissioned by The Philanthropic Collaborative for Integrative Medicine, an organization that works to bring about optimal health and healing for individuals and society through philanthropic efforts that support Integrative Medicine innovations and initiatives. The study goals were to help explore the quality of Integrative Medicine in the United States, identify catalysts and challenges to its development, and to discover new ways to educate and communicate the benefits of Integrative Medicine.
Many other industry-leading institutions took part in this study, including members from the Harvard Medical School, the Duke Center for Integrative Medicine, Bastyr UniversityÂ’s Center for Natural Health and Thomas Jefferson University HospitalÂ’s Policy Institute for Integrative Medicine.
According to Amato, “These people and the institutions they represent are the pioneers of Integrative Medicine. Someone like David Eisenberg, from the Harvard Medical School’s Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, helped start the snowball effect toward integrative medicine in the early 1990s, when he stated that people are seeking a consumer-driven health system.”
Amato, who started Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® in 1997 as the first center to introduce the art of healing and natural medicine to Northeastern Pennsylvania, was asked to participate in the study because of his experience as an advocate in the field.
As a founding member of the National Integrative Medicine Council, Amato has worked side by side with such well-known alternative and integrative medicine pioneers as the CouncilÂ’s co-founder, Dr. Andrew Weil, a world-renowned expert on the areas of mind-body interactions and Integrative Medicine.
Explaining why he and Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® have been so successful, Amato states, “We’ve been very successful in promoting our center and its services to the people of NEPA. Our staff is well trained, licensed and committed to providing our patients with an integrated, holistic approach to medicine. As a result, other centers around the country have come to us, seeking to model their services after ours.”
He adds, “Our participation in research studies such as this, plus our own well-designed vision and our plans for future development and expansion, means that we will continue to help many people find a better medicine for whatever health concerns they may have. This is the medicine of the future and we at Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® and the Center for Integrative Medicine are ready for it.”
The Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® and the Center for Integrative Medicine operate out of the Clarks Summit Abington Executive Park location and their new offices in Mercy Hospital’s General Services Building in Scranton.
Inner Harmony WELLNESS CENTER® is a nationally recognized, industry leader in integrative and alternative medicine. Its mission is to provide an environment for promoting integrative health services-a model combining the best of conventional, complementary and alternative medicine, which cultivates awareness and empowers individuals toward obtaining optimum health and well being.
Since its opening in 1997, the WELLNESS CENTER® has steadily grown and expanded its services to match the growing needs of NEPA residents. Included in this expansion was the development of the Center for Integrative Medicine and the acquisition of Dr. Lawrence Howard’s practice at Mercy Hospital, Scranton, where the WELLNESS CENTER® provides primary care along with complementary medicines to residents of NEPA.
# # #
