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Member Spotlight

memb spotlight nachatArian Nachat, MD FABEM FABHPM

Integrative Pain Management Lead
Kaiser Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek, California

I am board certified in emergency medicine, and hospice and palliative medicine, and trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine. My interest in CAM modalities started in medical school, when I took an elective course in integrative medicine. I found it fascinating that there were Western medical conditions that could be treated with CAM with improved patient satisfaction and outcomes.

We, as allopathic providers, struggle with a myriad of Western medical conditions that cause our patients great frustration and loss of quality of life that can be co-managed using an integrative approach that combines the best of both allopathic and complementary medicine.

In the past 3 years, I have been the director of an acute inpatient integrative pain management team at Kaiser Permanente in Walnut Creek. Our team consists of physician, clinical nurse specialist, pharmacist, and acupuncturist providers. We evaluate patients from a comprehensive vantage point and offer both allopathic medication optimization and Eastern treatment modalities. We also have a group of volunteer providers who perform guided meditation, reike, massage therapy, bodywork, qigong, and healing touch. In our retrospective administrative reviews, we have found that our patients use less narcotics, stay in the hospital for less time, and return to a more functional life faster compared to patients who do not receive these types of treatments. We are the only such inpatient program in the United States at this time.

My goal in joining APS and becoming a chair for the CAM SIG is to further the education and understanding of how to safely, in an evidence-based model, integrate the best of these worlds to improve pain management and healthcare delivery.