As you read this issue, the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health and the American Medical Student Association Foundation are hosting the Leadership & Education Program for Students in Integrative Medicine (LEAPS in IM), a weeklong event dedicated to "Integrative Medicine education, leadership skills, and developing IM projects [for students to] implement at their own home schools." Attending LEAPS in IM this year is 7th quarter University of Western States student Freya Moran, the first chiropractic student ever chosen to attend the program.
The Leadership and Education Program for Students in Integrative Medicine allowed non-MD/DO students to apply for the program for the first time in 2015. Moran is one of 30 students chosen to attend this year.
According to UWS, Moran was selected "based on her proposal outlining an integrated medicine residency program for DC students," and is required to plan and execute her proposal with support from her faculty mentor and core faculty at LEAPS in IM.
"For too long there has been this curtain up in front of chiropractic, but times are changing and there is a desire in more and more chiropractic students to be part of an integrated medical team after graduation," said Moran upon learning of her acceptance into the program. "I want to help take this curtain down. I think with this extended residency idea there will be more opportunities for chiropractors to learn how to talk to MDs and other practitioners on an integrated health care team in their language."
"The successful integration of health care resources begins with relationship building and sharing patients' care needs between professions," added Gary Schultz, DC, DACBR, one of Moran's faculty mentors. "This program and [her] ideas are a great step in accomplishing this goal."
LEAPS evolved from the former AMSA Foundation- and National Institutes of Health grant-sponsored Educational Development in Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EDCAM) Leadership Training Program, first held in 2003. For more information, click here.
