Fully engaged integrative partnerships between tribal nations and academic institutions present unique cultural, legal, and communication challenges (Harding et al. 2012b).
Integrative partnerships with the U.S. EPA, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), state agencies, and scientific advisory boards can result in better-informed toxicity research, risk assessments, and regulatory decision making.
The critical issue is whether this institutional arrangement is the most appropriate for moving the partnership into the integrative stage.
In the medium term (2012 2015), resources from core working group members based at RIPS, Amsterdam and NYU are likely to push the partnership into the integrative stage.
An increasing number of academic health institutions are committed to integrative medicine (IM) principles, including partnership between patient and practitioner; collaborative, interprofessional health care; and promotion of health and the prevention of illness.
As the partnership moves into the integrative stage, a budget for administrative and management support must be built into our funding applications.
Austin has developed a concept of three stages of strategic alliances between business and non-profit (NGO) partnerships: philanthropic, transactional and integrative (Austin 2004).
Despite the questions, Sabin thinks that for the integrative health and medicine community the Cleveland Clinic partnership with IFM means that "we have reached the tipping point".
Matthew B. James, MA, Ph.D., is President of The Empowerment Partnership, the world's leading integrative personal development company for over 30 years.
Meeting the challenges outlined in this paper requires integrative science across scales, disciplines and new partnerships beyond the scientific community.
