Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I am privileged to introduce you to Professor John Blum’s recently published article The Naprapath in the Rainforest.
Two years ago I received a call from Professor Blum, and he told me that he was writing an article on adding Complementary Alternative Medicine to the Affordable Care Act for the Nexus Law Journal. The Nexus Journal is a well read and distributed Journal of Law and Policy from the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law. He was seeking information on Naprapathic Medicine in order to include our profession in his article. After several conversations and meetings with Professor Blum, I received a draft. I was shocked and pleased that not only were we included, but he chose to make Naprapathic Medicine the focus of the article.
Below please find an abstract, as well as an attachment of the full published article.
Enjoy and please share,
The Naprapath in The Rain Forest PDF
Dr. Patrick Nuzzo, DN
The Naprapath in The Rain Forest
This paper presents a proposal for the concerted use of state licensed Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) professionals who specialize in manipulative therapies as part of ongoing health reform efforts. The proposal for expanded CAM utilization is driven by growing pressures on the health system to identify new and creative ways to respond to existing public health demands, especially new human resource challenges triggered by the need for more preventive and wellness services. It is the contention of the paper that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) triggers opportunities for innovations that include the use of CAM practitioners, such as Naprapaths, in areas that concern pain management, and in particular, addressing the epidemic in chronic lower back pain. Based loosely on the widely regarded management text, The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley (Hwang, Horowitt), the article proposes a model for use of Naprapathy (and other licensed specialties in manipulative medicine) as a conservative modality for lower back pain that can be integrated into cross disciplinary group practices. The model suggested in the piece calls for utilizing Naprapathy in the context of Patient Centered Medical Homes, an innovation that is both legally feasible and fits the transformative spirit of the ACA. This modest proposal for CAM inclusion in addressing lower back pain can serve as a springboard for wider utilization and more focused clinical efficacy studies.
John D. Blum
John J. Waldron Research Professor of Law
Beazeley Institute for Health Law and Policy
Loyola University School of Law
Adjunct Professor of Medical Humanities
Loyola University Program in Public Health
