Effect of Inpatient Medication-Assisted Therapy on Against-Medical-Advice Discharge and Readmission Rates.

Background: Patients who present to the hospital for infectious complications of intravenous opioid use are at high risk for against-medical-advice discharge and readmissions. The role of medication-assisted treatment for inpatients is not clear. We aimed to assess outcomes prior to and after rollout of an inpatient buprenorphine-based opioid use disorder protocol, as well as to assess outcomes in general for medication-assisted therapy.

Whole Systems Research Methods in Health Care: A Scoping Review.

Objectives: This scoping review evaluates two decades of methodological advances made by "whole systems research" (WSR) pioneers in the fields of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM). Rooted in critiques of the classical randomized controlled trial (RCT)'s suitability for evaluating holistic, complex TCIM interventions, WSR centralizes the principle of "model validity," representing a "fit" between research design and therapeutic paradigm.

Design: In consultation with field experts, 41 clinical research exemplars were selected for review from across 13 TCIM disciplines, with the aim of mapping the range and methodological characteristics of WSR studies.

Convergent Points for Conventional Medicine and Whole Systems Research: A User's Guide.

Context: Value-based health care has emerged as a manifestation of the conventional medicine community's awareness of the overlapping needs to both better incorporate patient centeredness into practice and research paradigms and further develop a systemic approach to cost reduction.

Background: The origins of the whole systems research (WSR) movement date to the late 1990s, when the U.S.

Outcomes from a Whole-Systems Ayurvedic Medicine and Yoga Therapy Treatment for Obesity Pilot Study.

Objectives: To determine the feasibility and acceptability of an Ayurveda/Yoga intervention for weight loss, using dual-diagnosis inclusion criteria, dual-paradigm outcomes, and a semistandardized protocol with tailoring according to the Ayurvedic constitution/imbalance profile of each participant.

Design: Seventeen participants enrolled in a weekly intervention for 3 months. Outcome measurements were performed at baseline, postintervention, and 3 and 6 months follow-up.

Why Ayurvedic Yoga Therapists and Why Now?

IAYT has paved the way for yoga therapy as a healing profession to grow and develop its mission to deliver optimal therapeutics via individual sessions and tailored group classes. For the past five years, the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) has been working behind the scenes to consider the value and definition of an ayurvedic yoga therapist (AYT) professional designation within the yoga therapy discipline. The AYT designation would complement the current standards for yoga therapists that have been published by IAYT.

Yoga Therapy Research: A Whole-Systems Perspective on Comparative Effectiveness and Patient-Centered Outcomes.

For the yoga research community to capitalize on its current momentum, it is critical to consider certain developments in research theory and innovative methodologies. The concept of model validity must be incorporated in yoga therapy research so that explanatory constructs employed and outcome measures chosen reflect the principles of traditional yogic science. Focusing on effectiveness research will ensure maximum generalizability of study results and reflect real-world therapy delivery settings, thereby increasing the relevance of outcomes.

A Pilot Feasibility Study of Whole-systems Ayurvedic Medicine and Yoga Therapy for Weight Loss.

Objective: To develop and test the feasibility of a whole-systems lifestyle intervention for obesity treatment based on the practices of Ayurvedic medicine/ Yoga therapy.

Design: A pre-post weight loss intervention pilot study using conventional and Ayurvedic diagnosis inclusion criteria, tailored treatment within a standardized treatment algorithm, and standardized data collection instruments for collecting Ayurvedic outcomes.

Participants: A convenience sample of overweight/obese adult community members from Tucson, Arizona interested in a "holistic weight loss program" and meeting predetermined inclusion/exclusion criteria.

Narrative review of yoga intervention clinical trials including weight-related outcomes.

Context: Medical authorities have identified obesity as a causal factor in the development of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD), and more broadly, of metabolic syndrome/insulin resistance syndrome. To provide solutions that can modify this risk factor, researchers need to identify methods of effective risk reduction and primary prevention of obesity. Research on the effectiveness of yoga as a treatment for obesity is limited, and studies vary in overall quality and methodological rigor.

A complex, nonlinear dynamic systems perspective on Ayurveda and Ayurvedic research.

The fields of complexity theory and nonlinear dynamic systems (NDS) are relevant for analyzing the theory and practice of Ayurvedic medicine from a Western scientific perspective. Ayurvedic definitions of health map clearly onto the tenets of both systems and complexity theory and focus primarily on the preservation of organismic equanimity. Health care research informed by NDS and complexity theory would prioritize (1) ascertaining patterns reflected in whole systems as opposed to isolating components; (2) relationships and dynamic interaction rather than static end-points; (3) transitions, change and cumulative effects, consistent with delivery of therapeutic packages in the reality of the clinical setting; and (4) simultaneously exploring both local and global levels of healing phenomena.