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This chapter has described how on a popular movement for an alternative to the dominant brand of medicine became known as “integrative health and medicine” and began to penetrated into and shift the kind of medicine people would find in the nation’s mainstream delivery organizations. Importantly, the majority of services of integrative medical doctors, of naturopathic physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, yoga therapists and others used by people in the US continue to be directly accessed in communities, outside of the dominant payment and delivery system. They remain “alternatives,” chosen by patients for their care and by practitioners because they believe them to have greater value in health and medicine than the mainstream of US medicine accords them. The integration of these services is thus typically engaged by each individual, often with an integrative practitioner’s guidance, and coordinated to greater and lesser extent with conventionally practicing physicians. Communication with conventional practitioners about such services remains low.

It is a paradoxical truism that, while the movement has come a long way, at the same time it has only just begun. In mid-2020, a new initiative was announced that grew out of this activity and is expected to leverage change toward integrative models more rapidly. The wealthiest woman in the world, Alice Walton, partnered with the former Veterans Administration “whole health” leader, Tracy Gaudet, MD, to found the Whole Health Institute. The announce plan was, among other things, to take from the knowledge and models developed inside the VA and spread them through civilian health and medicine. To lead change in hospitals and medical delivery organizations, Gaudet brought in Lori Knutson, RN, BC-HN, the professional known to have the most experience in the US in successfully building integrative and wellbeing programs in major medical delivery organization.

While a full plan is only emerging, a sense of its scope can be seen not only in Knutson’s hiring but also in two announced initiatives (Weeks 2020b). One is partnership with Whole Health ED, an organization targeting placement of integrative health-oriented programs in K-12 education. Among these: mind body programs, experiences in nature, creative arts therapies, healthy eating, school vegetable gardens, and more. The other is a plan to create a new medical school to be shaped around fostering whole health values and principles. Walton has shared interest in influencing health and medicine via Whole Health Institute initiatives throughout the US, and globally. The possibilities are grand when a yet unannounced portion of Walton’s $ 54-billion net worth will be committed. The transformational ideas of the Sixties, carried by consumers and organizers of a grassroots movement, appear to have expansive opportunities for continuing convergence, and leadership, ahead.