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America’s ‘Pain Epidemic’ and the Role of Integrative Medicine Providers and Payers

Sure, treating acute pain with conventional medical interventions and drugs can be quite helpful, but similarly treating “chronic” pain across various conditions and pathologies often amounts to little more than simply masking symptoms. Whether taken orally or as an injectable, drugs (including steroids) can temporarily reduce inflammation and pain but their potential deleterious long term negative effects can often take a significant physical, emotional and/or financial toll on patients and

The Power of Content to Grow Your Integrative Medicine Business

It’s never been more important to create and distribute high quality content to engage prospective patients and clients. That’s why I’ve written on this more than any other business development topic. It’s what drives business today—whether you’re talking about integrative health and medicine, financial services or computer widgets. Next to word of mouth patient and medical professional referrals, content strategy provides the most important opportunity for you to grow your

The Impact of ‘Escape Fire’ and What Comes Next

In his excellent post, “Revisiting Escape Fire: The War to Rescue Our Health,” integrative health publisher and thought leader John Weeks questions the impact of this highly regarded documentary as a truly effective healthcare delivery game changer, and he appeals for a harder-hitting sequel to help finish the job. But before we discuss what a sequel might cover, it’s important to consider the uneven impact the original has had since

Grow Patient Volume By Marketing Less

Perhaps the title of this post is a bit disingenuous because, more accurately, what I’m positing is that you can best grow your integrative medicine business (patient volume, product sales) by selling and marketing differently, if not exactly less. Frankly, your customers (aka patients) and prospective clients couldn’t care less about you, your ambitions and why your services or products are special. They’re focused on themselves, their own problems and

Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation—NOW!

“Reputation management is the practice of building, preserving and rectifying the public’s perception of your integrative clinic or enterprise.” In today’s über-connected world with its crawling social media channels, blogs, chat rooms and physician rating websites, there’s just no good excuse for failing to monitor and manage your online reputation. That includes the auto-default excuse: I’m too busy. Slow to Build, Quick to Tarnish Left unattended, your online reputation can

7 Reasons to Launch a Newsletter to Build Your Integrative Medicine Practice

You’re missing a big opportunity to grow your practice if you’re not currently publishing a newsletter and using email marketing. Here’s why: 1. Email Still Preferred Engagement Channel Despite all the hype about social media supplanting email, the truth is that 94 percent of Americans 12 years and older still regularly use email. Email remains the preferred method of communication even with the growth in social media platforms and messaging

How-to Guide: Launching Your Integrative Medicine Newsletter

My previous post provided seven key reasons why your clinic or center needs to become a publisher to better engage patients and prospective customers to grow your community. Following is a practical guide to get up and running quickly. First Choose an Email Vendor I’ve been using Campaign Monitor’s email marketing system for FON’s newsletter, but there are quite a few additional quality vendors to choose from with many offering

Free Access: Seminal Paper on Integrating Top 10 Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care

A new paper titled Integrating Dietary Supplements Into Cancer Care, authored by the Clinical Practice Committee of the Society for Integrative Oncology, will be published in the October/November 2013 edition of SAGE’s Integrative Cancer Therapies, edited by Keith I. Block, MD. SAGE has graciously made the article available, accessible here for 30 days, starting September 1, 2013. A significant portion of cancer patients are now using dietary supplements. However, patients often don’t

8 Steps to Negotiating Integrative Medicine within Institutional Settings

John Weeks recently shared a post by Christian Nix entitled Ten Cardinal Sins Acupuncturists Make, illustrating how an acupuncturist might pragmatically get in the door of an institution, gain acceptance and ultimately, a gig. More to the point, it explains what not to do. I regularly write and speak on integrative medicine within institutional settings, and how best to secure physician and administrative leadership support. Thus I strongly relate to

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