FON: THE BUSINESS OF INTEGRATIVE HEALTH & MEDICINE

Why I Write—and Why You Should, Too

I’ve written more in the last five years than the previous two decades combined. This body of work, for FON, exceeds 150 posts on this blog, scores of articles for other outlets, three e-books, and one very personal memoir. In my previous career—publisher of a consumer magazine—I contributed a whopping two articles over 25 years; and they needed a lot of cleaning up. But that was okay, I didn’t fancy

7 SEO Myths & Their Effect on Your Integrative Health Brand

Search engine optimization (SEO) remains critical to driving traffic to your website to engage prospective patients and clients. However, fast-paced technology may have overtaken you. Your current efforts may be for naught, mistakenly based on outdated practices. Over the last few years much has changed in terms of the algorithms Google uses to reward or penalize sites. If you’re not staying on top of this stuff, you’re likely falling short

Facing Huge Demand, Cleveland Clinic Doubles Its Functional Medicine Center

Pictured left to right: Drs. Patrick Hanaway, Mark Hyman and Jeffrey Bland. The Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine (CFM) will be doubling its physical size and patient care capacities in the coming year, to meet what medical director, Dr. Patrick Hanaway, characterizes as “unbelievable pent up demand for this kind of care.” Since opening in late 2014, CFM practitioners have handled nearly 5,300 total appointments, quickly reaching maximum capacity.

Content Guide to Growing Your Integrative Medicine Business

For the last five years I’ve consistently blogged on all aspects of business and brand development for integrative health businesses, clinics, and organizations. This edition points to archival content which I believe will have the most impact on your future success. 1. Assess First, then Strategize & Execute Before you can accurately define the best forward strategy, you must: home in on where you are; align your business and personal

5 Legal Tips for Setting Up A Functional Medicine Practice

When establishing your functional medicine practice, you’ll be wading into clinical waters that are often navigated by many medical colleagues, yet not necessarily adopted within the mainstream medical community. Here are 5 legal tips that address some core legal fundamentals when setting up a functional medicine practice. Transitioning to your Own Functional Medicine Practice Recently, a physician contacted our office about setting up her own functional medicine practice. She was

The Tipping Point: Integrative Health as the Standard of Care

The second decade of the 21st century will be recognized as the tipping point beyond which integrative health and medicine became the standard of care in the United States. The inexorable momentum achieved during the last five years has propelled the movement to the gates of conventional care. The gates have opened. Integrative health and medicine have walked right in and taken their rightful place. The adoption of a multitude

Integrative Healthcare: Value Ready in 2016?

The advances made across the archipelago of integrative health and medicine disciplines in 2015 continue to be significant. If not yet a “movement,” the practices continue their inexorable flow into the established precincts of medicine, wellness, and prevention. And they are likely to find more adoption in 2016. Here are a few to watch. Integrative Health in Employer Care and Wellness Plans During 2015, Mark Bertolini, chief executive officer (CEO)

Becoming an Integrative Health Thought Leader: Part 7—Conclusion

Can you recognize the majority of these integrative health luminaries by their last name only? Abrams, Alschuler, Amen, Barnard, Benson, Berman, Bland, Block, Blumenthal, Borysenko, Bradley, Brogan, Campbell, Cass, Cates, Chappell, Chopra, Cohen, Cunningham, Dossey, Esselstyn, Evans, Fuhrman, Gaby, Gahles, Gaudet, George, Gladd, Goertz, Goldblatt, Gordon, Gottfried, Guarneri, Haas, Hanaway, Haramati, Houston, Hudson, Hyman, Jaffe, Ji, Jonas, Kabat-Zinn, Kahn, Kaptchuk, Katz, Kligler, Knutsen, Kreitzer, Lee, Lipman, Low Dog, Mack, Maizes,

Becoming an Integrative Health Thought Leader: Part 6—Monitoring + Promoting Your Brand

Protecting and promoting your personal brand, to better your position as a thought leader, is critical. It requires proactivity, with ongoing monitoring of your good name and reputation—you must always have your ear to the ground. Essentially, to ensure your information and content is in all the right places you need to employ the most appropriate tools to efficiently and consistently get the job done. As the old saw goes,