New Integrative Care Research Abstracts from ICIMH

If you are among the integrative practitioners who are interested in new integrative care research, but missed the over 350 posters and presentations at the recent International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH), you have a reprieve. The abstracts are now available via this open access article from the Congress’ publishing partner, the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

The biannual Congress is sponsored by the 68 medical school Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health. The most recent meeting drew over 800 researchers, educators, policy makers and clinicians from 29 countries. The research was as diverse as this sourcing. Presentations were offered by participants from multiple countries and healthcare professions. The body of work runs the gamut from basic research to exploration of costs, methods, and epidemiologic dimensions. Here are a few of the flavors from the over 50 “oral posters” in which the authors of the selected submission were given 15 minute presentations each. These are selected simply to give you a taste of the research themes:

• 04 Complementary and Integrative Health Implementation in the VA
• 04 Cost Savings from Reducing Pain Through the Delivery of Integrative Medicine to Hospitalized Patients
• 01 Mindfulness Meditation in Older Adults: Effects on Stress, Affect, Cognition, and Physiology
• 03 Development of a New Clinical Mindfulness Research Tool “iM-HERE” to Enhance, Deliver and Streamline Online Mindfulness Interventions
• 02 Development and Psychometric Properties of the Yoga Self-Efficacy Scale

Similarly, from the over 300 posters, these are selected to give you a flavor of the diversity of subjects:

• 18 The Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Formula JTTZ (Jiangtangtiaozhi) for Type 2 Diabetes Patients with Obesity and Hypertriglyceridemia: A Multicenter Randomized, Positive-Controlled, Open-Label Clinical Trial
• 24 Insightful: An Agile Robotic Dispensing and Adherence System for Dietary Supplements
• 01 Assessing the Effect of Reflexology on Pain Levels in Patients Undergoing Surgical Procedures
• 07 Response of Tinnitus to Osteopathic Manipulation
• 34 Choral Singing, Wellness and Prevention of Cognition Impairment
• 10 Trigger-Point Self-Care for Chronic Neck Pain: Pilot and Feasibility

During the May meeting, the ACIMH included new collaborators: Integrative Health Policy Consortium, the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health, the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine and the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research. The related policy and education-focused abstracts are not included, however. All the other abstracts are here for review. For questions regarding these open access articles, please contact [email protected].

Comment: The toughest part of attending this meeting is its almost oppressive abundance. This is especially true for long-timers for whom this meeting is also a tribal gathering and opportunity to reconnect with colleagues. Adding to the frustration is that, except for the plenaries – one of which I recently wrote up as The Dalai Lama and the Neurophysiology of Health and Compassion – the presentations are not recorded. Webcasts of the ICIMH plenary session speakers are available here.

If you who want to learn more about the posters, contact information is provided for one of the investigators of each of the studies. These investigators can be asked to send a PDF of their poster, or slides. Enjoy the cornucopia!