Year-long Leadership Collaborative Launched to Implement Integrative Health Care at 17 Sites

The Family Medical Education Consortium (FMEC) launched a new learning collaborative in September of 2020 thanks to a grant from the Samueli Foundation. The purpose of the learning collaborative (LC) is to implement integrative health care using the HOPE Toolkit for enhancing non-pharmacological approaches to pain and opioid use or other chronic diseases.

Dr. Jonas, Executive Director of Samueli Foundation Integrative Health Programs, developed the HOPE note, a patient-guided process designed to identify the patient’s values and goals in their life and for healing. Using it allows clinicians to find ways other than prescribing analgesics to help patients get back in control of their lives.

As part of the collaborative, the 17 clinics from across the country come together each month to problem solve and learn from each other as they work to implement, test and evaluate new tools and approaches for treating patients. The participants include family medicine residencies, FQHCs, and primary care practices in both academic and community-based settings, serving a diverse group of patients. They are led by an expert group of faculty including:

• Wayne Jonas, MD, Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Georgetown University, Executive Director, Samueli Foundation Integrative Health Programs, author, How Healing Works
• Andrea Gordon, MD, Associate Professor of Family Medicine, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency, Cambridge Health Alliance
• Elena Rosenbaum, MD, Medical Director, Alliance for Better Health, Director of Integrative Medicine, Albany Family Medicine, Associate Professor, AMC Department of Family and Community Medicine
• Connie Earl, DO, family physician in Sonoma County, CA. After completing her residency training at the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency (SRFMR), Connie served as the Integrative Medicine Fellow at SRFMR; this fellowship is focused on providing evidence-based, integrative medicine for the underserved in community health clinics and FQHCs.
• Allen Shaughnessy, D., M.Med.Ed., Professor of Family Medicine and Director of Medical Education, Tufts University Family Medicine Residency, Cambridge Health Alliance

Final results will be shared in October of 2021. More information on the collaborative is available on the FMEC website.