Pediatrician explores mind-body healing with fellowship
by Toni Baker
Dr. Robert A. Pendergrast Jr., associate professor of pediatrics and an adolescent medicine specialist at the MCG, has completed the Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona.
The two-year, 1,000-hour program explores the art and philosophy of medicine, the relationship between culture and medicine, mind-body interactions, nutrition, physical activity, botanicals and spirituality.
The program, launched in summer 2000 by integrative medicine pioneer Dr. Andrew Weil, combines residential sessions in Tuscon with a ‘distributed learning’ model in which participants learn via the Internet from their home or office.
“A lot of medical care in the latter part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st century is what I call high-tech, low-touch: a lot of procedures, a lot of labs and sometimes very little time with your doctor,” said Dr. Pendergrast. “I want to be a part of the transformation of American health care, part of getting back to our roots as healers instead of technicians.”
Integrative medicine also works to give health care providers information about non-traditional treatments and preventive measures so they can help patients make good choices. “When a patient comes in and said, ‘My friend or sister told me this herb would work for my bronchitis. What do you think?’, most conventionally trained doctors would say, ‘Don’t take it. It’s a waste of time.’ Or, ‘I don’t know how to advise you on that,’” said Dr. Pendergrast. “But when you look at the numbers, about two out of three Americans are using those sorts of things, herbal medicine, going to chiropractors, getting energy healing, therapeutic touch, traditional Chinese medicine.” Patients are voting with their feet and saying that something about conventional medicine is not working, he said.
“What we would like to do is bring those kinds of menu options to the table in the conventional medical setting under the supervision of doctors who have been trained enough to know what is good and what is not. Integrative medicine allows an openess to non-conventional forms of healing while using good science to evaulate effectiveness. We also recognize with humility that there is a lot we don’t know.”
Many of the ideas are not new to MCG where patient and family centered care concepts have driven the design and operation of the Children’s Medical Center and an increasing number of adult programs. MCG also is integrating the concept into educational programs for each of its five schools.
Dr. Pendergrast has fostered integrative medicine on the campus by offering an elective for medical students and a mind-body clinic that teaches children hypnosis to ease pain from conditions such as migraine headaches, rheumatoid arthritis and post-surgical complications. He also teaches class in Qigong, an ancient Chinese form of self-healing, at the MCG Wellness Center.
Experience has taught him that some of these approaches improve wellness, the sense of well-being and disease treatment. The reality is, it’s an approach the country and health care cannot afford to ignore. “We have this culture of medicine as sort of the rescuer,” he said. “We will go bankrupt as a country if we keep relying on that. We cannot afford with the baby boomers getting older, the health care bill that we are paying unless we really start paying attention to lifestyle changes, diet, exercise, self-care, stress-reduction, all those things. To me, it’s all just common sense.”
Dr. Pendergrast directs adolescent health services at MCG. He is a 1983 graduate of the MCG School of Medicine and completed pediatric training and an adolescent medicine fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. He earned a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1988. He chaired MCG’s Working Group on Complementary and Alternative Medicine from 2001-04.
For more information about the integrative medicine fellowship visit http://integrativemedicine.arizona.edu/.