Winter 2010

Best Medicine

By Kevin Barrows, MD, Interim Director, Clinical Programs

Barrows It is a rare and precious opportunity to practice integrative medicine at the UCSF Osher Center. We are at a unique place and in a unique moment in time where a tremendously inspiring new mode of healing is being born. This moment represents a time of unprecedented modern scientific discovery, alongside an unprecedented understanding of the major ancient healing traditions. At the same time, we are seeing a crisis in the conventional healthcare system that demands something new.

The Wisdom of the Past Creates a Bridge to the Future
Integrative medicine draws from deep roots in the past, yet it also creates a new medicine for the future. Eastern traditions—like Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda—add stability and a kind of gravitas to the new creation that is Integrative Medicine. These traditions have deep roots in treatment and prevention and provide tremendous therapeutic options for the modern integrative physician. Yoga, as another example, has a long history, and the greater healing system within which it is embedded, Ayurveda, is in ascendancy in the West. Mindfulness has also contributed greatly to our understanding of health and healing, so greatly in fact that many integrative medicine centers such as ours consider it foundational.

Some of the deep roots that integrative medicine draws from also come from the West. There are contributions such as Western herbalism, manual medicine and psychotherapy, but equally important are the contributions of method. Western medicine gives us a venerated method for diagnosis and for the study and understanding of disease at a structural level. The tradition of Western medicine at its best also gives us a deeply compassionate, effective and culturally appropriate model for the doctor-patient relationship.

Demand for Something New
Now is certainly the moment to bring together the best of modern and ancient to create something new, something better. There is no doubt that the present day healthcare system in America is in crisis. Integrative medicine in many ways is a remedy for a healing system that is itself ill because it:

restores the doctor-patient relationship to its rightful role in the center of healing;
attends to the emotional and spiritual dimensions of well-being; and
offers true prevention and wellness solutions rather than solely rescue and fix solutions.

Never before in history have we had such deep understanding and awareness of different medical wisdom traditions. Never before in history has modern medical science been so advanced. And never before in modern America have we so desperately needed a new way forward.

The Magic of Integrative Medicine
Integrating these traditions is an exciting, inspiring, creative, pioneering and urgent endeavor. In my opinion there is not a more important growing edge of medicine on which to be. The opportunity to do this at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine is a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. The Osher Center brings together all of the magical necessary ingredients: clinical skill, professional education and training, world-class research and the generous support of farsighted donors.

There is a sense of mission that many of us clinicians have in the field of integrative medicine. We want nothing less than to change the way medicine is practiced. As is commonly said in our field, we don't practice strictly "natural" medicine, and we don't practice strictly "conventional" medicine. By integrating the best of what ancient and modern humankind has discovered, we strive to practice "best" medicine.