Great Week For Healthcare Reform Senate Hearing HELP Committee

[Guest guest]

As forwarded to me: Dr. Stone of Ashland, Or is a member of this group.

Dr. Marinkovich was also.

From: drhyman@...

drbroder@...

Sent: 2/25/2009 1:24:32 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

Subj: A landmark week for health care reform...

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This is a landmark week for transforming our health care system.

The Senate is having hearings on transforming health care and integrative

and Functional medicine and the National Academy of Sciences is hosting an

Institute of Medicine Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the

Public

http://www.iom.edu/integrativemedicine.

I am also honored to let you know that on Thursday, February 26th between 10

am and 12 pm, I will be testifying on how Functional medicine can help solve

our health care crisis before the Senate Committee on Health, Education,

Labor and Pensions at the invitation of Senators Kennedy, Harkin and Mikulski.

You can view this testimony, along with that of Drs. Oz, Ornish and Weil

online at:

http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_02_26/2009_02_26.html

I am not clear on whether the hearing will be streamed live or available for

viewing afterward, so please check back for the recorded version if it's

not streamed live.

Here is some of what I will be sharing with them.

* The current medical and scientific paradigm of acute care medicine

has been unable to effectively address the epidemic of chronic disease and its

associated costs.

* There is a new paradigm which addresses the fundamental underlying

causes of chronic disease, and can form the basis for a more effective model

of medical education, practice, and research that over time will generate

dramatic cost savings and improved health outcomes.

* There are specific initiatives and strategies based on this new

paradigm that can help quickly transform our sick care system into a health

care

system.

Even if we get everything else right in health care reform, it won't matter

unless we address the underlying causes of illness that drive both costs and

the development of chronic disease. This innovative approach to chronic

disease cannot only prevent but also more effectively TREAT chronic disease.

We must change not only the WAY we do medicine, but also the medicine we DO.

We must improve not only financing and delivery of health care, but also our

fundamental scientific approach to chronic disease-an epidemic that now

affects 133 million Americans and accounts for 78% of health care costs.

This way of doing medicine, or Functional medicine, is a system of

personalized, patient centered care based on how our environment and lifestyle

choices

act on our genes to create imbalances in our core biologic systems. Those

imbalances show up as the signs and symptoms we call disease.

It is best solution for our health care crisis. The solution is not our

current acute care model, which though extremely effective for acute disease,

leads to worse outcomes and higher costs when applied to chronic disease

because

it doesn't address WHY people are sick.

This new paradigm is personalized, preventive, participatory, predictive,

prospective, and patient centered.

It is proactive rather than reactive.

It is based on addressing the causes of disease and optimizing biologic

function in the body's core physiologic systems, not only treating the

symptoms.

It based on systems biology or medicine.

That model exists today, and is called Functional Medicine.

****Key Avenues for Change: Recommendations ****

1. Re-tooling medical education and research to match the science of

systems medicine. I recommend the establishment of a sustainably funded

Institute for Lifestyle and Systems Medicine/Functional Medicine.

2. Creation of Functional medicine demonstration projects in federally

funded community health centers, with integrated health care teams focusing

on treating chronic disease and providing education about lifestyle and

wellness

3. The establishment of a White House and/or Congressional Office for

Health and Wellness to coordinate all efforts in this area.

Thanks for all your support and encouragement in this critical time.

If you want to help, please contact your congressman, Senators and the White

House to advocate for this type of change and share your stories of how this

has impacted you.

We all can change our health care system together!

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, MD

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updates, red carpet pics and more at Moviefone.

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