Integrative Medicine Educator Fellowship

Are you a doctor who feels the conventional medical system is missing opportunities to promote or restore health? Has your exposure to Integrative Medicine or Complementary and Alternative Modalities (CAM) or other systems of medicine whetted your appetite to try a new approach to patient care? And do you want to both learn more and help teach the next generation of Integrative Medicine clinicians?

This fellowship can teach you the academic and integrative medicine skills needed to become a leader in creating a new generation of doctors who can promote whole person wellness.

This two-year Fellowship, accredited by the American Board of Physician Specialties, is the first fellowship developed to create faculty members who are experts in integrative medicine and are master teachers. The Fellowship is directed by Andrea Gordon, MD, an integrative medicine clinician and teacher, and is supported by Allen F. Shaughnessy, PharmD, MMedEd, Director of the Master Teacher Fellowship. This full-time, onsite fellowship combines clinical practice and teaching in integrative medicine with a Masters of Medical Education from the University of Dundee. For more information contact:

This fellowship will teach a holistic approach to health and wellbeing, taking into account mind, body and spirit as well as environment, culture and social determinants of health. Using these ,the fellow will be able to work with patients to help them create integrative health. This will include the University of Arizona 200-hour Integrative Medicine in Residency Program.

In addition, the fellow will complete the Masters of Medical Education Curriculum via distance learning from the University of Dundee, Scotland, an international leader in medical education innovation.

They will work with providers of other modalities, choosing the resources that will help them build the integrative practice and educational environment they envision for their career. By learning about and experiencing other approaches to wellness, the fellow will be better positioned to individualize plans for patients and explain what can be expected to patients and learners.

Clinical time will be limited to less than 0.3 FTE to protect time for learning, reflection, self care and practice teaching. The two lead faculty will work together and with the fellow to pace learning in Integrative Medicine and pedagogy, balancing curriculum to avoid overload.

Education in Integrative Medicine

Fellowship Goals:
To develop and use an overall philosophy that shifts from a disease-based model to a patient wellness and healing-oriented philosophy, enabling patients to develop a plan for their own integrative health.

1. To develop an evidence-informed approach to making decisions using integrative health methods
2. To understand health belief models and healing systems of different cultures
3. To appreciate the role of physician as healer and the value of developing a healing relationship with patients
4. To understand the role of lifestyle practices on wellness, including nutrition, physical activity, spirituality, and the mind-body interaction
5. To develop and use a team approach to the care of patients, incorporating other practitioners into the team
6. To develop and implement an approach to management of common issues in outpatient practice
7. To develop the knowledge and skills of medical education needed to provide leadership in teaching integrative medicine in medical school, residency, and to practicing clinicians
8. To develop medical education research skills
9. To meet the criteria to become board certified in Integrative Medicine

This will include education/ training in:

• Whole systems of medicine including aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda
• Osteopathic manipulation
• Energy medicine
• Mind-body medicine and movement therapies
• Expressive arts such as art therapy
• Herbal medicine, including effectiveness and potential interactions with concomitant use of pharmacologic therapies
• Nutrition
• Spirituality in medicine
• Professional practice of integrative medicine

All of these are within the context of:

• Foundations and philosophy of integrative medicine
• Appreciation of the doctor-patient relationship and role of physician as healer
• Lifestyle, prevention, health equity and environmental influences on health
• Information mastery; understanding how to evaluate and use medical literature

Masters of Medical Education

The Masters coursework consists of assignments and projects in five core areas:

• Teaching and learning
• Curriculum planning
• Principles of assessment
• Education management and leadership
• Medical Education research

In addition, Fellows may pick a number of optional areas for exploration and learning, including:

• E-learning
• Educational support
• Clinical teaching
• Teaching clinical reasoning
• Curriculum development and evaluation
• Work-based assessment
• Teaching professional identity formation

All Fellows will maintain a clinical practice in our CHA Malden Care Center, working alongside residents and faculty members. Fellows spend approximately 30% of their time in clinical practice, including their own integrative medicine clinic in the second year, with the balance of their time spent in teaching and learning activities.

Schedule

A Fellow's typical week looks like this:

Clinical teaching consists of precepting residents and students, supervised at first, and then independently. Fellows also have the opportunity to provide formal lectures and small group teaching of residents and students.