As a practicing family physician in the military health system, Wayne Jonas, MD, used to ignore his own wellbeing to spend more time caring for—and connecting with—his patients. He rarely got enough sleep or took breaks.…
When Wayne B. Jonas, MD, started practicing medicine in 1981, he was the only physician responsible for two entire battalions and their families – about 4,000 people. He learned quickly how to deliver person-centered, relationship-based…
Uncovering what matters Whole person health has come a long way. When we first developed the Personal Health Inventory (PHI), this tool was revolutionary. Asking patients about what mattered in their lives? Considering what brought…
In health care, if you do not name and document a problem or a process, it remains invisible. It might as well be nothing. The biggest problem we have for improving health and lowering the…
How You Can Use the ASCO-SIO Review and Guidelines Recently, I wrote about using the American Society for Clinical Oncology and Society for Integrative Oncology’s (ASCO-SIO) joint guidelines on integrative approaches to manage cancer pain.…
I’ve often wondered what will be the first signs that our health care system in the U.S. is shifting toward whole person, preventative care. The first hint I got that we may be reaching this…
Integrative primary care is the coordinated delivery of evidence-based conventional medical care, complementary medicine and lifestyle medicine within a primary care practice. Incorporating integrative medicine into mainstream primary care practices enables providers to: Deliver higher…
As a primary care provider in San Francisco’s Mission District for 32 years, Dr. Bodenheimer took care of low-income, mostly Latina patients. He did his best to make their lives better. But as the years…
Epidurals, spinal anesthesia, and analgesics work well against labor pains. However, they do have some side effects including nausea and vomiting as well as increasing the chance that some assisted birth is needed. There are some…
"Our healthcare system is obsessed with delivering medical services, performing procedures and prescribing medications. It really needs to become obsessed with producing health. That is—or should be—the goal of healthcare. Yet, as a nation, the…
