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"Gentle Yoga to Start the Day"
workshop led by Bonnie Tarantino, MFA |
The University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine’s
second annual Health & Wellness Conference was held on Saturday, May 4,
2013 at the Hilton Baltimore. More than
350 health care professionals and lay people gathered to hear Mark Hyman, MD,
doctor, author, and advisor to the Dr. Oz Show, speak about how society can
influence health and how we can be a part of the wellness movement. More than 20 leading experts in Integrative
Medicine led workshop sessions throughout the day, and the lunchtime panel and
plenary sessions rounded out the day, giving the audience the opportunity to
interact with speakers.
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| Kevin Chen, PhD led a morning QiGong workshop outside |
“It was a wonderfully executed conference,” said one
attendee. “Each session was better than
the previous. I look forward to
attending next year and spreading the word about it to others.”
From nurses, social workers and yoga practitioners, to physicians,
pharmacists and therapists, to the general public, the Conference catered to
the interests of health and wellness enthusiasts of all kinds. This year, in addition to Continuing
Education credits for many health care professions, the Conference offered a
Pain Management track that was approved for Continuing Medical Education
credits, drawing two-thirds more physicians than at the first conference.
Overall, 97% of attendees who responded to the
post-conference survey reported that the Conference met or exceeded their expectations,
and 56% said their main goal for attending the conference was to gain knowledge
to share with others. “I will share what
I learned at the Conference with my patients when they press me for pain meds,”
said one participant who asked to remain anonymous.
In a survey comment, another attendee wrote, “I felt
uplifted at the Conference. It was
inspiring to see speakers and presenters who strongly projected their desire to
help others.”
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| Dr. Mark Hyman |
More than 20 experts in health care and integrative medicine
led workshops throughout the day on topics such as nutrition, meditation, yoga,
spirituality, environmental health, Ayurveda, manual medicine, acupuncture, and
more. Participants were able to select
one of three to five workshops from each of the four sessions and were united in
one room for Dr. Hyman’s keynote lecture, the lunch panel on “Changing the
Paradigm of Health Care,” and the plenary session addressing “Pain Management
in the 21st Century” led by the Center’s Associate Director Dr.
Delia Chiaramonte.
“Are the social threads that connect us as important as the
genetic threads?” asked Mark Hyman, MD, doctor, author, Functional Medicine
expert, and advisor to the Dr. Oz Show, in his keynote address “Social
Ecosystems and Chronic Disease.” Through
his work, he has discovered that our social environment and connections can be
a major influencer over our health. In
an inspiring presentation, Dr. Hyman explored how the community can be part of
the medicine and part of the cure.
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Jay Perman, MD, President of
University of Maryland, Baltimore |
“All of us in healthcare need to embrace our partners across
the professions if we are going to serve patients and serve the needs of the
public properly,” said University of Maryland’s President Dr. Jay Perman in his
remarks that introduced the lunchtime panel.
Moderated by the Center’s Director Dr. Brian Berman, a panel of health
care visionaries came together to give the audience an intimate look at how
they have seen and helped “Change the Paradigm of Health Care.”
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| Panel (L to R): Dinae Hoffmann, Thomas Scalea, MD, Brian Berman, MD, Lori Knuston, RN |
Dr. Thomas Scalea, physician-in-chief of the University of
Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, stated, “It’s not so much about what
it is we do – it’s about the total care package that we provide the people … we
will continue to push the envelope that is about the total care of the patient
and measuring the effect of what it is that we do.”
Lori Knutson, RN, a nurse who helped make dramatic changes
in the healthcare system in the Midwest, shared her story, and Diane Hoffmann,
director of the health care law program at the University of Maryland Francis
King Carey School of Law, addressed how political and legal changes affect health
care, such as licensing practices. Half
an hour of questions from the audience gave participants a chance to interact
with the panel.
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| Delia Chiaramonte, MD |
In a post-lunch plenary lecture, Delia Chiaramonte, MD,
Associate Director and Director of Education at the Center for Integrative
Medicine, tackled the topic of “Pain Management in the 21st Century,”
analyzing what we do and what we can do differently, such as looking at the
whole person. “We can’t really talk
about pain, particularly chronic pain, without thinking about all kinds of
things…like people’s emotions, their genetics, their social situations, like
how happy they are in their life, the context of the pain…” said Dr.
Chiaramonte. A running theme throughout
the
day, Integrative Medicine takes a team approach and looks at the whole
person – for better health and wellness.
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