On Sunday, January 14th, the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine held its inaugural Fellowship Program graduation and pinned twenty-nine inspired and compassionate professionals as AIHM Fellows. Congratulations to our graduates!
Through their 1,000 hours of study, the AIHM Fellows, who come from diverse clinical backgrounds, learned about traditional medicine systems including Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Homeopathy, and Naturopathic medicine as well as cutting-edge fields of study including Epigenetics, Biofield therapies, and integrative subspecialty sciences, like women’s health, mental health, and cardiology. Due to the high incidence of practitioner burnout in the current medical model, self-care modules are infused throughout the Fellowship curriculum to promote wellness for all healthcare providers.
“The Fellowship will breathe new life into your professional career, you will become excited again about what you are doing…it’s just a beautiful community.”Amy Dayries-Ling, DMD, FAIHM
The Fellows came away from this experience more connected to each other, the practice of medicine and their patients. Kathleen Ignacio, MD, FAIHM said, “The Fellowship has taught me how to do medicine in a different way, to connect, to connect better with patients, really draw out what the real issues are, the root causes. I think the fellowship has made me a better doctor, I think I’m better at doing what I do every day. I think it’s showing in my patients and in their healthcare.”
The experience of the Fellowship served as a source of inspiration for the participants. Amy Dayries-Ling, DMD, FAIHM said, “The Fellowship has tremendously affected my practice, it has given me again the courage to talk to my patients on a differed level, to really go there and get to where some of the heart stuff is. Sometimes Dentistry can be very cold, so I still fix teeth but a lot of times they come back to me and tell me how I helped them with something else, which was quite unexpected. The Fellowship will breathe new life into your professional career, you will become excited again about what you are doing, you will connect to people better and you will meet many, many, many others who feel as intensely about helping others as you do and it’s just a beautiful community.”
“If people are looking to further their connection with the integrative community and help to crystalize their vision, certainly if they want to sit for the board exam, the Fellowship will help them in their journey.”Tara Doyle Bizily, MD, FAIHM
For practitioners seeking a new way forward in medicine, Tara Doyle Bizily, MD, FAIHM shared, “The Fellowship has helped to crystalize my vision in the way that I want to move forward with my practice. I think if people are looking to further their connection with the integrative community and help to crystalize their vision, certainly if they want to sit for the board exam, the Fellowship will help them in their journey.”
The AIHM Fellowship is a solution to the broken medical system in our country, which is not sustainable, and is not promoting preventative health. Director of Student Affairs at AIHM, Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH shared that “healthcare is in a state of transition and reform, people are looking to bring new and creative ideas that have both an evidence-base but also have innovation, we are also thinking about ways of improving cost and access to health care. So integrative medicine and integrative medicine–trained providers provide an opportunity for us to address those challenges to our healthcare directly, in addition it really allows us to have true meaning and purpose in our work and really build on our genuine commitment and service to the profession of healthcare.”
If you are interested in learning more about the program, visit the AIHM Fellowship page.
