Events

Helen Moss in Washington D.C.!

In the first quest for funds, I visited Washington the last week in April and lobbied as a spokeswoman for a one million dollars grant in the Appropriations 2006 from the Federal Government to establish a program in Integrative Medicine at Case Western Reserve Medical School to work with not only the Cleveland medical community but with the entire State of Ohio.

I was armed with letters of support from Dean Ralph Horwitz, M.D., Dean of Case Western Reserve Medical School; Governor Bob Taft; Jane Campbell, Mayor of Cleveland; Alex Mechaskee, Publisher and President of the Plain Dealer; Paul Feingold, PhD, President of Myers University;. Barrie Cassileth, Ph.D., Chief of Integrative Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in NY, holder of the Laurance Rockefeller Chair in Integrative Medicine;. Nate Berger, M.D., former Dean of Case Western Reserve Medical School, Hanna-Payne Professor of Experimental Medicine and Director, Center for Science, Health and Society; Michael Weiss M.D., PhD, Chairman, Department of Biochemistry at Case Western Reserve Medical School, the Cowan-Blum Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine; Denise San Antonio Zeman, President and CEO of the Saint Luke’s Foundation; and others. We all know that the public supports Integrative Medicine, so I thought it was important that the leadership of our community and State stand up and support Integrative Medicine for the public. And they did!

I visited the offices and the aides of eight of our representatives: Senators DeWine and Voinovich; Congressman Dennis Kucinich; Congressman Ralph Regula; Congressman Sherrod Brown; Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones; Congresswoman Marcie Kaptur; Congressman Steve LaTourette. I was very impressed with the caliber and professionalism of every one of these representatives. They listened intently and treated me with respect, asking questions until they were satisfied. Some of the comments that I received were that there was no conflict of interest in what we are doing; that everyone will win; that our plan was complete and our goal clear; that it is trailblazing for the State of Ohio and that it has the support of the Public and our members, all 700 strong.

I was very encouraged, but we will not know how much we will get until December 2005. Meanwhile, we will talk to at least four foundations in the next 6 months. In the meantime I am asking that our members send us donations towards the Program/Chair in Integrative Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.