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The role integrative medicine will have in the future practice of medicine will be the focus of a debate in April between two renowned physicians who have gained international attention for their opposing views on the issue. Titled, Is Integrative Medicine the Medicine of the Future?, the debate is scheduled Friday, April 9, 5:45 to 7:30 p.m., at the UA College of Medicine, DuVal Auditorium. Debate participants include: Arnold S. Relman, M.D. — An outspoken critic of integrative medicine (New Republic cover story, Dec. 14, 1998), Dr. Relman is editor-in-chief emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine and professor emeritus of medicine and of social medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dan Rutz — Senior medical correspondent for CNN, Rutz will moderate the debate. |
 Dr. Relman says: "Sick patients are best served by medical treatments based, whenever possible, on objective evidence. Compassionate concern for patients is necessary, but by itself insufficient, for effective care. The latter also requires a respect for science and objective data, which conventional medicine holds more firmly than alternative medicine. I doubt the two approaches can be successfully integrated without more agreement on this issue." |
 Dr. Weil says: "Integrative medicine is the future, and our health care institutions will not survive without it. Integrative medicine also is evidence-based, but it considers kinds of evidence ignored by conventional science and encourages the development of an expanded scientific paradigm. The integrative approach is based on a partnership of patient and practitioner in which both conventional and alternative modalities are used to stimulate the body's innate healing potential." |
Dr. Relman is a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the
National Academy of Sciences, and is a former president of the
American Federation for Clinical Research, the American Society of
Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Andrew Weil, M.D. — An international authority on integrative medicine and director of the UA Program in Integrative Medicine, Dr. Weil is author of many scientific and popular articles and of seven books. Named by Time magazine as one of the nation's most influential people of 1997, Dr. Weil is a recognized expert on drugs and drug abuse, addiction, medicinal plants and reforming medical education. He earned degrees in botany and in medicine at Harvard University.
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PLEASE NOTE:
* The debate will "kick-off" a conference, "Healing Arts: Medicine, Ethics, Humanities" http://www.library.arizona.edu/conference/health/).
* Because of extremely limited seating, the debate is for conference participants and guests only. However, the public can watch the
debate live on Tucson's Cox Cable, Channel 53, and People's Choice TV, Channel 46. And the debate will be broadcast live in several conference rooms at the UA College of Medicine; that seating (which is open to the public) also will be limited,and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For information, please call Nancy Guthrie, (520)
626-7301.
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