The Metropolitan King County Council, in collaboration with King County Integrated Health Care 2010, is pleased to announce the Puget Sound regions vital role, in shaping national policy related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).

The issue will be discussed over the course of two days at the upcoming Seattle Town Hall Meeting of The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy held October 30-31 at The Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Avenue, Seattle.

Seattle's Town Hall Meeting is the only two day meeting in the nation and will have eight commissioners attending rather that the usual four.

Metropolitan King County Councilmember Kent Pullen, co-chair of King County Integrated Health Care 2010, said that he is excited to have the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy coming here to hold a public hearing, "The Seattle area has long been a beacon to those seeking to integrate natural medicine with conventional medicine. We continue to light the path for those who are seeking improved health at lower cost through better treatment options."

The Northwest region is recognized as the epicenter for the CAM integration movement and Metropolitan King County is seen as "ground zero" for innovation and quality in the integration movement, placing our communities in a position to initiate and facilitate changes in national policy related to complementary and alternative medicine for a number of important reasons, as follows:

-- The Puget Sound region has a national reputation for

leadership in health care reform, including the Washington

State "every category of provider" law, which became effective

in 1996,

-- The Northwest region enjoys national visibility for education,

leadership, clinical services and research, in high quality

conventional and complementary and alternative medicine,

-- Bastyr University, located in our region, is internationally

recognized as a pioneer in the study of science based natural

medicine. The university is a leading voice in health care

reform to improve community health,

-- The King County Council has a demonstrated commitment to

innovating and advocating for the integration of natural

medicine, establishing the King County Natural Medicine Clinic

in 1995, the first publicly funded integrated natural medicine

clinic in the country,

-- The King County Board of Health has demonstrated its

recognition of the importance of natural medicine by being the

only board in the country with a naturopathic physician as a

member and creating a task force investigating natural

medicine integration into public health programming.

Metropolitan King County Councilmember Maggie Fimia, co-chair of King County Integrated Health Care 2010, says of the upcoming meeting, "I am proud that the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine has chosen our region, and King County in particular, to spend significant time hearing about the work and goals of our community in relation to improving health care..

(From Business Wire)