CAMLAW : Complementary And Alternative Medicine Law Blog

LearningAndLife.com has announced educational and informational online resources.

Juvan's Health Law Update features the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog and the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine.

Having passed the QLTT exam for admission as a solicitor, I'll be collecting UK legal resources.

Alternative medicine legal and research resources are now copiously listed by Georgetown Law Library.

The Homeopathic Medical Society of the State of New York is having its annual convention in November in New York City.

Here is a list of more recent openings from friends and colleagues around the country.

Persons interested in luxury feline accommodations will be glad to know of the Blue Cat Farm Spa in New London, New Hampshire.

MD Anderson has just released a video entitled "Complementary Therapies...What you must ask, and why."

To continue helping populations severely impacted by the devastating effects of war, The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) embarks on a new and critical phase of its Healing the Wounds of War (HWW) program.

Dr. Lawrence Rosen has just established a new blog dedicated to integrative pediatrics. Well done.

An on-line course is now available for practitioners of acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine seeking recertification as Diplomates from the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.

The American Medical Association has released a new version of its Family Medical Guide that includes a whole chapter on alternative therapy.

The Institute of Medicine's Report on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States highlighted five ethical values to be held in balance during clinical decision-making.

The IOM today released its report on U.S. CAM Use, noting that health care should strive to be both comprehensive and evidence-based and calling for conventional medical treatments and complementary and alternative treatments to be held to the same standards for demonstrating clinical effectiveness.

Here are some up-to-date links to resources in the CAM, Legal, and Holistic Health community.

Stephen E. Straus, MD, Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, wrote a favorable review of Marginal to Mainstream: Alternative Medicine in America, a new book from my colleague Mary Ruggie, PhD, a sociologist and professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The review, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, commented: "Readers could also review Cohen's Beyond Complementary Medicine: Legal and Ethical Perspectives on Health Care and Health Evolution (University of Michigan Press, 2000) for more insights into the government machinery that is abetting or restraining the movement of CAM from marginal to mainstream."

Below are links for hospitals involved in complementary and alternative (integrative) medicine.

Below are links to organizations involved in hypnosis and hypnotherapy. Be sure to read A Question of Time, the novel about hypnotherapy.

Below is a list of names and addresses of (and links for) the major professionals associations representing the major CAM professions (acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, massage therapy, and naturopathy).

Below is a case study of CAM legal issues involving a client seeking to offer online health services. The client, an MD, sought effective consultation for a new, entrepreneurial venture, while controlling legal fees.

Below is a case study of CAM legal issues involving a client seeking to build a wellness center. This business required rapid, effective solutions without excessive cost.

In addition to Articles by Michael and Books by Michael, this section offers articles and books by others on complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine law, regulation, ethics and policy.

This part of the blog will be updated regularly with important links to key players in the CAM field.

Below is a chronological list of articles and book chapters, with links and downloads where publicly available. A list of articles by topic area is available at the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine.

Intellectual property legislation and other resources are listed and linked below.

Below are further materials for various courses.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has convened a Committee on Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by the American Public. The Committee is charged with the following:

European providers of complementary medicine may be surprised by the formal strictures which their US counterparts face. A major hurdle to holistic practice in the USA is the statutory prohibition against the unlicensed practice of medicine.

Physicians integrating CAM therapies into clinical practice face many legal challenges, including the fact that legal rules governing CAM providers and practices are new and evolving in many cases.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) presently defines complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as covering "a broad range of healing philosophies (schools of thought), approaches, and therapies that mainstream Western (conventional) medicine does not commonly use, accept, study, understand, or make available.

The article addresses four regulatory challenges faced by practitioners of homeopathy.

Take this short quiz to assess the extent of your potential malpractice liability regarding counseling clients and patients about use of complementary, alternative, and integrative medical therapies.