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Duke Integrative Medicine’s new state-of-the-healing-arts facility offers a balanced blend of conventional and complementary therapies.

What if medicine were more about staying healthy than about healing illness? What if doctors and patients were partners in health and healing? What if a patient left her doctor’s office feeling as though her spirit had been cared for as much as her body?

These are the goals of Duke Integrative Medicine, which intends to revolutionize the art, science, and practice of medicine.

The word integrate means to blend into a unified whole. Integrative medicine (IM) seeks to do just that: to combine the very best in conventional medicine and cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment with carefully selected, evidence-based complementary therapies. The ultimate goal is the health and healing of the whole person -- body, mind, and spirit.

“Integrative medicine emphasizes that all factors that affect health, wellness, and disease should be considered, including the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of a person’s life,” says Sylver Quevedo, MD, MPH, medical director for Duke Integrative Medicine. “It brings patients and caregivers into a partnership to achieve the patient’s optimal health and healing.”

Duke opened its new IM facility in January. The graceful new building and idyllic landscape that Duke Integrative Medicine calls home was designed with health and healing in mind. It is meant to represent, in structural form, a balance between mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical health.

Though the building is the first of its kind, integrative medicine is gaining acreage in esteemed medical centers across the country.

And there’s good reason: A growing number of scientific studies are showing that incorporating complementary therapies into medical treatments can significantly help patients heal. Massage therapy can ease discomfort in cancer patients, for example, and acupuncture given on the day of embryo transfer can significantly improve reproductive outcomes in women receiving infertility treatments.

Tracy Gaudet, MD, founding director of Duke Integrative Medicine, says the integrative trend in medicine is a much-needed revolution.

“When someone receives a serious diagnosis such as cancer, or has an event such as a heart attack or surgery, modern medicine is at its best. After the treatment, however, the next critical step in the process is healing, when the body and the soul become whole again. Very often, this essential phase of healing is not recognized and supported.”

Gaudet and her team are pioneering the development of Personalized Health Planning -- a process in which patients work with physicians to carefully assess their current health status and create a personal health plan.

The personalized plan incorporates conventional health practices, such as medications, preventive screenings, and diagnostic tests, with complementary therapies such as botanicals, mind-body therapies, nutritional therapies, and fitness and movement programs.

Patients at Bark Integrative Medicine can choose their level of involvement, from individual classes to half-day visits to annual memberships.

Patients can access a range of services that are all available at the center facility: comprehensive medical examinations, screenings, and consultations; therapeutic consultations and services such as massage, mindfulness practices, or tai chi; health coaching sessions; and workshops and seminars in topics from diabetes to cancer to depression to weight loss. In-depth immersion experiences are also available, to help implement a patient’s personal health plan or to assist recovery after surgery or cancer treatment.

“We believe there is a powerful relationship between the mind, body, spirit, and community, and that when patients and providers work together to address the whole person, patients heal faster and more effectively reach their optimal level of health,” says Gaudet.

“We want to explore new ways of strengthening today’s health-care system, and to shift the focus of medicine to a health orientation rather than a disease-based model of care.”

IM in Action

Integrative medicine recognizes that different health situations require different responses. Often these may be conventional treatments such as medications or surgical interventions.

But sometimes the best treatment may be a careful, scientifically supported but less mainstream therapy. These complementary therapies can be used to support or replace conventional practices. Some examples of these therapies are:

• A person undergoing cancer treatment receives acupuncture to reduce nausea, a common side effect of chemotherapy
• A woman with severe menstrual symptoms takes nutritional supplements and practices deep breathing for stress reduction
• A person receives hypnotherapy and massage to reduce anxiety about impending surgery and promote healing afterward
• A woman practices prenatal yoga to ease her body through the stages of pregnancy and prepare her for labor