Into Medical Education, Clinical Services and Research
BOSTON, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirituality and healing are rapidly
becoming integrated into mainstream American medicine, observed Herbert
Benson, M.D., president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center. His conclusion is based on new figures showing
greater examination of spirituality's impact on health and mental health,
increased attention to the topic in medical schools and residency training
curriculums, and recommendations for assessment of patients' spiritual needs
by physicians and health care organizations nationally. Dr. Benson, also
chief of the division of behavioral medicine and the Mind/Body Medical
Institute Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, applauded
these achievements at the three-day SPIRITUALITY & HEALING IN MEDICINE Harvard
School Department of Continuing Education course opening today in Boston.
"Over the last ten years, we have witnessed a substantial growth in the
role and application of spirituality and healing in medicine," said Dr.
Benson. "It is our hope that this evolution will continue and build momentum
for more widespread acceptance by managed care organizations and insurers."
Since 1990, almost 1,500 research studies, research reviews, articles and
clinical trials have been published on the connection of spirituality or
religion to medicine and health -- a figure equal to the total of all such
pieces published prior to 1990. Based on this output, the relationship
between spirituality and healing and medicine is rapidly becoming a major area
for clinical research.
"The number of research studies documenting the healing effects of
spirituality and religion is significant," said Harold G. Koenig, M.D.,
associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University
Medical Center. "We are astounded and thrilled with the explosion of research
in the past ten years. These studies have explored almost all aspects of
medicine, from kidney disease to sexual dysfunction. The collective findings
and positive results indicate that we've just broken the surface. Imagine
what the next ten years will bring."
The desire to include spirituality and healing in medicine has also
reached consumers. According to a USA Today Weekend poll, 63 percent of
Americans would like their physician to discuss spirituality with them.
To meet this need, medical schools and residency training programs across
the country have taken notice and have begun to integrate such clinical and
care approaches into their curricula. Medical schools in the United States
providing coursework or lectures on the topic of spirituality have
dramatically increased from four in 1992 to 79 in 2000 -- more than half the
total of all medical schools in this country.
"The medical education community now recognizes the growing desire of
patients for their doctors to extend care beyond textbook medicine," said
Christina Puchalski, M.D., assistant professor at George Washington University
School of Medicine and director of education at the National Institute for
Healthcare Research (NIHR). "It is compelling to us as both researchers and
physicians to see physicians emerging from the classroom with a greater
understanding of how spirituality and healing can impact medicine."
David Larson, M.D., NIHR president, believes that there has been an
amazing paradigm shift in the movement of physicians towards spirituality in
medicine. "What I've found in my research is that when patients are seriously
or chronically ill they frequently use their spiritual or religious beliefs to
cope," explained Dr. Larson. "It gives them a sense of hope, a sense of
control and a sense of purpose through the stress of their illness. If their
physician can be attentive and responsive to this need, it might mean a great
deal to their patient in the midst of their suffering."
Over the past ten years, the importance of patients' spirituality has been
accepted by some of the nation's leading medical and healthcare organizations.
In a 1999 consensus report, the American College of Physicians and the
American Society of Internal Medicine suggested that physician care include a
review of, and attentiveness to, psychosocial, existential or spiritual
suffering of patients with serious medical illness.
A year earlier, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO), the body charged with evaluating and accrediting nearly
19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States,
established Spiritual Assessment Standards as a response to the growing need
for a greater understanding of how spirituality impacts patient care and
service.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) acknowledged
spirituality's potential in medicine in a 1999 Medical School Objectives
Project (MSOP) report. MSOP, the program that sets forth learning objectives
for medical students, stated, among other criteria, that before graduation,
students will have demonstrated to the satisfaction of the faculty, "the
ability to elicit a spiritual history as well as an understanding that the
spiritual dimension of people's lives is an avenue for compassionate care
giving."
Many of these milestones over the last ten years can be attributed to
initiatives funded by The John Templeton Foundation, The Fetzer Institute, and
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. With more published studies have come
more attention from previously silent funding sources. The scope and sheer
number of these trials has recently led the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) to begin undertaking their own reviews of the research. "If it wasn't
for The Templeton Foundation paving the way," says Dr. Larson, "we would not
have access to the current levels of funding as well as the levels of
clinician and research recognition."
"It is amazing to look back and see how far we've come," said Dr. Benson,
founder of the Spirituality and Healing in Medicine educational course. "In
looking ahead to the future, I see our next advances being with managed care
organizations. The science of spirituality has established itself as a
credible field of exploration; our goal now is to see it covered by insurance
carriers. My hope is that it won't take another ten years."
**NOTE: TAPED TRANSCRIPTS ARE AVAILABLE BY CALLING 1-800-647-1110.
Founded in 1988, the Mind/Body Institute is a non-profit scientific and
educational institution of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-CareGroup that
is a world leader in the study and advancement of mind/body medicine. The
Institute disseminates its work through Affiliates throughout the world, its
Centers for Training, Corporate Health, Women's Health, and Education
Initiative.
The John Templeton Foundation was founded in 1987 by internationally
renowned investment manager Sir John Templeton to encourage the pursuit of
religious and scientific knowledge. The Foundation currently provides funds
for more than 150 projects, studies, award programs, and publications around
the world, and its programs focus on five areas: spiritual information through
science; spirituality and health; character development; free enterprise
education; and the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. The John
Templeton Foundation underwrites a program to expand the teaching of
spirituality in medical schools as a complement to traditional medicine. For
information about The John Templeton Foundation visit their Web site at
http://www.templeton.org or call 610-687-8942.
SOURCE Mind/Body Medical Institute