BackgroundComplementary/alternative medicine and integrative medicine (CAM/IM) are increasingly used in the U.S. We set out to develop and validate a brief questionnaire measuring health care provider and medical student attitudes regarding these approaches to healthcare.MethodsIMAQ is a 29-item, 7-point Likert scale rated instrument, developed from focus groups consisting of faculty, fellows, visiting residents, and medical students at a university based integrative medicine program. Respondents included 111 (of 574 contacted) internal medicine physicians on an academic medical center CME list and 85 healthcare providers (mostly physicians) attending an American Holistic Medical Association Annual Conference (296 attending). Cohorts were selected for expected differences in attitudes toward CAM/IM.ResultsFactor analysis demonstrated that a 2 factor solution best explained the variance in responses (38%). Factor 1 ("openness to new ideas and paradigms") explained 26% of variance with loadings ranging from 0.79 to 0.3, with factor 2 ("value of both introspection and relationship to patient") contributing an additional 12% of the explained variance with loadings ranging from 0.69 to 0.42. Both factors demonstrated adequate reliability. Factor 1 had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91, while factor 2 was 0.72. As expected, AHMA conference attendees scored higher (F = 120.00, p < 0.001) than the internists on the IMAQ, supporting the construct validity. Although 63% of the AHMA subjects, and only 32% of the internists were female, analysis revealed that gender did not explain the score differences (F = 2.6, p > 0.05).ConclusionsAnalysis of the IMAQ provided evidence of its reliability and validity in measuring attitudes toward CAM/IM, specifically openness to new ideas and paradigms, and the value of relationship to self and patient. Initial findings support use of the IMAQ in measuring attitudes of students and practitioners towards CAM/IM interventions as a first step in understanding willingness to use these approaches to healing. It is our desire that this preliminary instrument will continue to be refined as the field of CAM/IM matures.

Introduction The Integrative Medicine in Residency (IMR) program, a 200-hour Internet-based, collaborative educational initiative was implemented in 8 family medicine residency programs and has shown a potential to serve as a national model for incorporating training in integrative/complementary/alternative medicine in graduate medical education.

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BackgroundAs more integrative medicine educational content is integrated into conventional family medicine teaching, the need for effective evaluation strategies grows. Through the Integrative Family Medicine program, a six site pilot program of a four year residency training model combining integrative medicine and family medicine training, we have developed and tested a set of competency-based evaluation tools to assess residents' skills in integrative medicine history-taking and treatment planning. This paper presents the results from the implementation of direct observation and treatment plan evaluation tools, as well as the results of two Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) developed for the program.MethodsThe direct observation (DO) and treatment plan (TP) evaluation tools developed for the IFM program were implemented by faculty at each of the six sites during the PGY-4 year (n = 11 on DO and n = 8 on TP). The OSCE I was implemented first in 2005 (n = 6), revised and then implemented with a second class of IFM participants in 2006 (n = 7). OSCE II was implemented in fall 2005 with only one class of IFM participants (n = 6).Data from the initial implementation of these tools are described using descriptive statistics.ResultsResults from the implementation of these tools at the IFM sites suggest that we need more emphasis in our curriculum on incorporating spirituality into history-taking and treatment planning, and more training for IFM residents on effective assessment of readiness for change and strategies for delivering integrative medicine treatment recommendations. Focusing our OSCE assessment more narrowly on integrative medicine history-taking skills was much more effective in delineating strengths and weaknesses in our residents' performance than using the OSCE for both integrative and more basic communication competencies.ConclusionAs these tools are refined further they will be of value both in improving our teaching in the IFM program and as competency-based evaluation resources for the expanding number of family medicine residency programs incorporating integrative medicine into their curriculum. The next stages of work on these instruments will involve establishing inter-rater reliability and defining more clearly the specific behaviors which we believe establish competency in the integrative medicine skills defined for the program.