Consciousness attracts the attention of researchers representing various disciplines. Hence, there is a demand for a theoretical tool that could integrate data and theoretical concepts originating from distinct fields. The paper proposes to use the framework of the theory of integrative levels. The development and the definitions of the concept of levels are briefly discussed. The final part of...

Increase in the prevalence of disease and illness has dramatically altered the landscape of pediatrics. As a result, there is a demand for pediatricians with new skills and a sharper focus on preventative health. Patient demand and shifting pediatric illness patterns have accelerated research in the field of pediatric integrative medicine. This emerging field can be defined as healing-oriented ...

"Healing circle" is a term that has been employed by a group of Northern California integrative medicine researchers as we embarked on an 8-year ethnographic study. As a clinical medical anthropologist and registered nurse specializing in integrative practice and behavioral health, I undertook this study with colleagues from various health disciplines.

In a recent Opinion article, Sui and Humphreys [1] argue that experimental findings suggest self is ‘special’, in that self-reference serves a binding function within human cognitive economy. Contrasting their view with other functionalist positions, chiefly Dennett's [2], they deny that self is a convenient fiction and adduce findings to show that a ‘core self representation’ serves as an ‘int...

Background Many couples have difficulty in getting pregnant, and turn to a variety of treatments to help them conceive. Allopathic, or conventional, methods to help with infertility are often expensive and risky. There are many things a woman can do to increase the chances of conceiving and having a healthy pregnancy with alternative forms of medicine. Integrative medicine with complementary tr...

This session will describe the evolution of an integrative model of primary healthcare delivery within a hospital-based setting. Over the past decade, the Academic Family Health Team (AFHT) in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto has been in the business of transforming primary healthcare. The AFHT provides services to the inner-city community of T...

We propose an integrative self-organizing map (iSOM) for exploring differential expression patterns across multiple microarray experiments. The algorithm is based on the assumption that observed differential expressions are random samples of a mean pattern model which is unknown a priori. The learning mechanism of iSOM is similar to the conventional SOM. The mean pattern model which underlies t...