AIHM 2020 Conference: People, Planet, Purpose

The Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) held its annual conference—this year a virtual event—in October. AIHM’s mission is to engage a global community of health professionals and health seekers in innovative education, research, and advocacy that embraces global healing traditions to promote and deliver person-centered care.

With the death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have revealed stark healthcare disparities, this year’s three-day event, said the organizers, was a call to action for healthcare providers to envision a world where “healthcare is a human right, prevention is the best intervention and racial disparities are a thing of the past.”

As a first, this year’s conference highlighted conversations around systemic racism and equity in healthcare. Titled “People, Planet, Purpose,” the conference featured dozens of speakers from the integrative health and medicine community. Topics included “Women’s Health in the Era of Inequity, Discrimination and Oppression,” “Equitable Patient Access to Integrative Healthcare Services,” “The Effects of Racism, Trauma and Chronic Stress on Health,” and roundtables on “COVID-19: Issues with Race and Equity” and “Environmental Health, Social Health, and Equity.”

Session speakers were a who’s who of experts and thought leaders from the integrative health community, including AIHM founder and president Mimi Guarneri, American Red Cross executive medical officer Yvette Miller, integrative psychiatrist Scott Shannon, and integrative medicine physician and educator Bradley Jacobs.

Formed in 2013, AIHM serves a global interprofessional community of those who share their holistic and integrative approach of person-centered care and recognize the link between health and the state of the planet.