Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com June 22, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 11 most recent report on the use of comple- mentary and alternative medicine pub- lished in 2008 showed that about 38 percent of U.S. adults used some form of medical therapy outside the realm of mainstream medicine. The NIH includes several therapies under the umbrella of complementary and alternative medi- cine, such as acupuncture, massage, hypnosis and mediation. Clearly, consumer interest is strong, and that means major health care providers want in on alternative medicine, Donadio said, adding that this has been the case for at least a decade in the Greater Boston area, where all major hospitals offer some sort of integrative medicine that merges alternative therapies with mainstream treatments for patients dealing with chronic health issues. Central Massachusetts providers tend to be a little more parochial in Donadio's experience, but providers here have also embraced the field in recent years as more people inquire about it. "If the major medical centers are making money off of it, they're more than happy to provide it," Donadio said. Integrative medicine programs may not always be designed strictly to gener- ate revenue, however. UMass Memorial's offerings UMass Memorial Health Care, the region's largest health care system, offers an integrative medicine initiative for can- cer patients, offering weekly complemen- tary care therapies such as yoga, guided imagery and deep-breathing exercises. Meanwhile, HealthAlliance Hospital, the UMass Memorial affiliate with cam- puses in Leominster and Fitchburg, offers similar services to cancer patients, but also to the general public at its Simonds-Hurd Complementary Care Center in Fitchburg. Simonds-Hurd opened in 2011 and grant funding pays for complementary therapies to help ease the side effects of the cancer treatment patients receive on the same campus, according to Lynn Gerrits, a mental health clinician who is also a yoga instructor and teaches Reiki, a Japanese hands-on technique said to promote healing. But the center also operates on a fee-for-service basis, taking in patients who have been referred by doctors in the community. The cancer doctors see how effective the center's treatments are at reducing side effects, and often encourage their patients when they start their courses of treatment to seek such therapy as acu- puncture, hypnosis or Reiki, Gerrits said. Meanwhile, physicians who special- ize in other areas of medicine tend to send patients who suffer from chronic pain and haven't responded to other treatments. "We try to work as closely as possible with the physicians … to help them understand how these modalities can work together with the health care they're providing," Gerrits said. Gerrits said she has seen a general softening within the medical commu- nity toward alternative therapies as a way to complement other pain treat- ments, which often include the use of opiates and narcotics. As Gerrits sees it, alternative therapies offer a safe alter- native to these drugs, which frequently lead to addiction. College catches on But don't take it strictly from an alter- native medicine practitioner. Other recent local developments in alternative medicine provide further evidence that mainstream medical professionals who focus believe in its efficacy. The announcement earlier this month that MCPHS University (formerly the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), which has a Worcester campus, had bought the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) is a high-profile example. At the time, MCPHS President Charles F. Monahan, Jr. said holistic medicine is a $20 billion industry that's drawing the interest of many students. Now, MCPHS offers two master's degree programs in acupunc- ture through NESA. Lana Dvorkin Camiel, a professor of pharmacy who works within MCPHS' Center for Drug Information and Natural Products, which provides information on herbal treatments and dietary supplements, said that since patients are demanding alternative medicine, higher education institu- tions need to tailor coursework to encompass it. "We feel we are preparing our stu- dents for practice," Camiel said. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcus Cooper, a cardiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, recently launched his first wellness venture: a thera- peutic massage s t u d i o i n Shrewsbury called Massage Ultra. The deep-tissue massage offered there is designed to promote heal- ing from muscu- loskeletal injuries and migraine headaches, and help patients tack- le behavioral health challenges, such as losing weight and quitting smoking. With a medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Cooper said therapeutic mas- sage can boost dopamine levels while reducing cortisol, a stress hormone, for one to two weeks after treatment. That goes a long way in helping people make behavioral health changes without med- ication, he said. While the long-term health benefits are difficult to measure with clinical studies, patients rave about therapeutic massage, according to Cooper. "And we can't just dismiss that," he said. n Alternative medicine meets the mainstream >> Continued from Page 1 MCPHS professor Lana Dvorkin Camiel: Colleges must adjust course offerings to accommodate alternative medicine.

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