White House Commission Research Articles

Reframing the Opioid Epidemic as a National Emergency

On August 10, 2017 President Trump announced his intention to declare a national emergency following the recommendation of the White House Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. Opioid abuse is among the most consequential preventable public health threats facing the nation. More than 600,000 deaths have occurred to date, with 180,000 more predicted by 2020. Of the 20.5 million US residents 12 years or older with substance use disorders in 2015, 2 million were addicted to prescription pain relievers. A national emergency declaration authorizes public health powers, mobilizes resources, and facilitates innovative strategies to curb a rapidly escalating public health crisis.

Around the World

In science news around the world this week, a Japanese group extracted natural gas from a deep-sea methane hydrate deposit; a White House commission says that the U.S. government could consider testing the anthrax vaccine in children; a man died after being infected with rabies through a kidney transplant; and more.

Risk Identification and Assessment

This summary is to the White House, FEMA, The Congress, US Nuclear and Regulatory Commission and US Army Corp of Engineers. Risk management is all about taking risks and minimizing threats or bad outcomes. (Borge, 2001 p.9) This year’s recent critical incident impacting Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (Energy.gov, 2011) makes us ask are the nuclear plants in the U.S. failsafe? In the news this May 23, 2011 we heard that the end of the world would be May 22, 2011; which anyone who reads that bible knows that such a prediction is heresay therefore a fallacy. However, we have 15 nuclear plants located in the New Madrid Seismic Fault Zone located along the Mississippi River where levees are being blown up by the US Army Corp of Engineers. Induced seismic activity can destroy those nuclear plants like it did in Fukushima, Japan and destroy the entire North American Continent, meaning us.

A GLANCE AT THE MOVE FROM COMPLEMENTARY ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE (CAM) TO INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM (UK), UNITED STATES (US), AND WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

Today's medical world has gained a growing appeal towards CAM/TM which can be seen in the strategies of US in the form of establishing National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) at the White House, the annual increase of integration of CAM classical education in UK’s colleges and medical schools beside conventional medicine and strategies of WHO about the CAM. In this article we take a glance at some of the main strategies and programs of UK, US and WHO in the field of CAM/TM as examples of advanced modern medical system and their trend towards CAM/TM. 1-Increase of CAM/TM education integration in the medical education systems up to 60% (UK). 2-Emphasis of need to evaluate widely used CAM treatments for safety, efficacy and effectiveness by the use of modern experiments and clinical trials and presentation of credible data to curious public (NIH). 3-The need to train, encourage, and support of skilled investigators in both CAM and conventional medical academic communities and facilitating research, training, education and communication for interdisciplinary integration thus moving from CAM towards integrating medicine (WHO). With respect to the trend seen in medically advance countries, and considering that TIM is one of the oldest and richest branches of CAM/TM, in order to avoid falling behind the frontiers of today’s medicine which is now incorporating CAM/TM into its infrastructure, we propose that the IR of Iran must institute research, education, and therapy of TIM into the IRI health care delivery system.

Review: America's Army Making the All Volunteer Force

AMERICA'S ARMY Making the All Volunteer Force Beth Bailey Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. 352pp, US$29.95 cloth ISBN 13978-0674035362Beth Bailey has written a marvellous book about an important topic. Her exploration of the US army's transition from selective service to an allvolunteer force is well researched, persuasively argued, and written in a clear and easy style that is too often missing from both military and cultural history. From the draft protests of the 1960s to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, America's Army narrates how the nation's largest armed service survived the tumultuous 1970s, rebounded in the 1980s, and fashioned a winning formula for public acceptance and support in the present. While scholars have already given some attention to the army's adoption of an all-volunteer force, Bailey's book situates the transition in a broader social context, using the debates over the army's future as a window into American race relations, gender relations, and the role of social science research and business methods in military affairs.Bailey begins in the Vietnam-soaked political landscape of the 1968 presidential campaign when candidate Richard M. Nixon first proposed abolishing the draft. Nixorf s promise was an act of pure political opportunism, but the actual work of designing an all-volunteer force, which fell to a White House commission of economists, soldiers, and business leaders, involved a deeper ideological struggle. Should providing for the national defence be understood as an obligation of citizenship ora labour market issue of supply and demand? Prominent free-market economists Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan believed the latter and argued forcefully that the key to a successful all-volunteer force was improved pay and benefits to buy a steady supply of enlistees. Other members of the commission - including retired generals Alfred Gruenther and Lauris Norstad - had greater reservations about the intrusion of market principles into military life. Despite these conflicts, the free marketeers seized the initiative, and Bailey believes that their ideology has undergirded the all-volunteer force ever since. In her view, the army saved itself by turning increasingly to modern business practices: social science data to identify target Audiences, marketing consultants to interpret that data, and Madison Avenue ad agencies to sell the army as everything from as a path to college to a journey toward personal fulfilment. And while Bailey lauds the army's transition as a tale of progress and achievement, she notes in the book's final line that there is something lost when individual liberty is valued over all and the rights and benefits of citizenship become less closely linked to its duties and obligations (260).While Bailey the citizen has reasonable concerns about the intrusion of the market, Bailey the historian must have been grateful for it, because the marketing data compiled by the military and its ad agencies provide a fascinating window into the relationship between the army and the public. From basic demographic data on race, sex, and region to advertisers' youth studies and the military's youth attitude tracking study, statistics undergird Bailey's arguments but never cloud the writing. The chapter on race gives detailed attention to the army's use of social science research and the debates over whether such methods were effective or even moral. Bailey profiles two secretaries of the army with divergent opinions - Howard H. Bo Callaway and Clifford Alexander - with Alexander receiving the harsher criticism. Under his tenure, the army had so much trouble recruiting the men and women it needed for a modern high-tech military force that in the spring of 1980 President Carter asked congress to reinstitute draft registration. Many commentators at the time took this as proof that the all- volunteer force had failed. …

Physical Activity and Health: Becoming Mainstream

Complementary health practices and physical activity share some common origins. In the early stages of development, neither was widely practiced or recognized as a valuable contributor to health. Systematic research on physical activity and health began in the 1950s, focusing on occupational exertion. That work was criticized as methodologically flawed, leading in time to more controlled research, longitudinal studies, and the adoption of an exercise epidemiology model. In 1996, the Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health clearly documented that physical activity reduced morbidity and mortality. Physical activity had become part of mainstream health and medicine. In 2002, the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy suggested ways of strengthening the growing body of evidence that supports a number of complementary health practices. With improved methodology, complementary health practices researchers can provide stronger documentation of the beneficial impact of those practices on health.

A Summary of the Final Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

A Summary of the Final Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

A Summary of the Final Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

PREVIOUS ARTICLEAbstracts from the 25th Annual Scientific Conference of the American Holistic Medical Association (May 15-18, 2002, Toronto, Canada)

National policy on CAM: the White House Commission Report.

In March 2000, President William Clinton signed Executive Order 13,147, establishing the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, to develop public policy proposals geared toward maximizing “the benefits to Americans of complementary and alternative medicine.” Disconcertingly, the Commission's charge presumed the safety and efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). In so doing, it placed the proverbial cart before the horse by setting the Commission on a mission to “address education and training of health care practitioners in CAM; [coordinate] research to increase knowledge about CAM products; [provide] reliable and useful information on CAM to health care professions, and [provide] guidance on the appropriate access to and delivery of CAM.”The Commission's final report (“Commission Report”), issued in March 2002, similarly skirts the fundamental question of whether evidence exists that CAM interventions are safe or offer sufficient benefit to justify their proliferation.

Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

The Polarized Debate Over Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Debate about the place and scientific of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased markedly in 2002 following the release of the report of the White House Commission on Alternative and Complementary Medicine Policy. Arguments for and against the integration of CAM into mainstream medicine that have been made are discussed. Positions taken by organizations opposed to CAM are described as are arguments to study the place of CAM further.

Selected Recommendations of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

Selected Recommendations of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

The Polarized Debate Over Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Debate about the place and scientific of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has increased markedly in 2002 following the release of the report of the White House Commission on Alternative and Complementary Medicine Policy. Arguments for and against the integration of CAM into mainstream medicine that have been made are discussed. Positions taken by organizations opposed to CAM are described as are arguments to study the place of CAM further.

Report of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy

The recommendations in the final report of the White House Commissionon Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy that was released in March 2002 are presented.

Interim progress report: White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

Interim progress report: White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.

Traditional Peoples and the Circle of Healing

In March 2002, the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy will present its recommendations to President Bush on CAM education, training, licensing, coordination of research, dissemination of informa tion, access and delivery of services. The Commission's report will have implica tions for the medical care of indigenous peoples. This article discusses traditional healing in Alaska and responds to Commission questions on traditional healer designation, selection, credentialing, licensing, preservation and the potential integration of traditional healing with conventional care. Philosophy underlying allopathic medicine and traditional healing is explained. An integrative model of care, The Circle of Healing, is described. "We are rebels, someone to flout. They drew a square that shut us out. But love and we had the will to win. We drew a circle that let them in." (Anonymous, 1997)

Complementary and Integrative Medicine: Emerging Therapies for Diabetes, Part 2: Preface

This is the second part of a two-part Diabetes Spectrum From Research to Practice section focusing on the use of complementary and integrative therapies for diabetes management. Part 1 (Diabetes Spectrum 14:129–160, 2001) [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] included articles on vitamin and mineral supplements in diabetes management, the use of subtle energy therapies (magnetic and touch), and Traditional Chinese medicine as an example of an alternative system of healing. In Part 2, we continue our exploration of integrative therapies and diabetes with an article by Laura Shane-McWhorter, PharmD, BCPS, FASCP, CDE, BC-ADM, on the use of botanical supplements in diabetes management (p. 199), a review of mind-body therapies by Birgitta I. Rice, MS, RPh, CHES (p. 213), and a discussion of body-based or manipulative therapies by Jeanette Ezzo, MsT, MPH, PhD, and associates (p. 218). We also include an interview with James Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and chair of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (p. 210). We are deeply appreciative of the time these individuals have given to further the education of diabetes clinicians in the area of integrative therapies. We, the guest editors, are also deeply grateful to the editorial team and staff of Diabetes Spectrum for allowing us adequate space and time to cover this important emerging area of medicine. It is important for those of us who have been trained in conventional Western medicine and health care to become more familiar … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DJAMA%26rft.stitle%253DJAMA%26rft.issn%253D0002-9955%26rft.aulast%253DEisenberg%26rft.auinit1%253DD.%2BM.%26rft.volume%253D280%26rft.issue%253D18%26rft.spage%253D1569%26rft.epage%253D1575%26rft.atitle%253DTrends%2Bin%2BAlternative%2BMedicine%2BUse%2Bin%2Bthe%2BUnited%2BStates%252C%2B1990-1997%253A%2BResults%2Bof%2Ba%2BFollow-up%2BNational%2BSurvey%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1001%252Fjama.280.18.1569%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F9820257%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1001/jama.280.18.1569&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=9820257&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fdiaspect%2F14%2F4%2F196.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000076852000022&link_type=ISI

Interview With an Expert in Complementary Therapy: James Gordon, MD

In Brief This article offers excerpts from a discussion with James Gordon, MD, director of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, D.C. Dr. Gordon is one of the key figures in the field of complementary and alternative medicine. He is chairman of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and is the author of 10 books including Manifesto for a New Medicine: Your Guide to Healing Partnerships and the Wise Use of Alternative Therapies.

Complementary medicine: its hidden risks.

Complementary medicine (CM) is popular; 1-year prevalence figures range from 20% in the U.K. to 65% in Germany (1). Increasingly, CM options are being discussed as treatments for diabetes (2,3). The Chair of the U.S. White House Commission on CM predicted that “within 5–10 years CM will be part of the care in every major hospital and clinic across the country” (4), and a U.S. ‘think tank’ estimated that “by 2010 at least two-thirds (of the US population) will be using one or more of the approaches we now consider complementary or alternative” (5). Such statements implicitly suggest that CM is safe. In fact, a recent report by the U.K. House of Lords’ Science and Technology Select Committee stated, “There is no doubt that CM therapies are very safe” (6). But how sure can we be that this is true? Some forms of CM are clearly not totally devoid of risk: acupuncture, for instance, has caused deaths and other serious complications through infection and trauma; chiropractic treatment has done so through vertebral arterial dissection after upper spinal manipulation; and herbal medicines have caused serious complications through hepato- and nephrotoxicity as well as herb-drug interactions (7). Such events are almost certainly rare, but their exact incidence is unknown at present. Thus, they represent an unknown that needs …

Congressional and Governmental Agencies

Policy, clinical, and research activity in governmental sectors regarding complementa ry and alternative health practices is increasing. Reported in this column are selective policy activities from the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and from congressional hearings on cancer care. Also reported is a clinical initiative to provide better health care to underserved populations implemented by the Bureau of Primary Health Care. Also noted is a new health services research program of the NIH/NCCAM that targets the challenges in the integration of CAM into the health care system.