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WesternU President Elected to National Interdisciplinary Health Academy

by Rodney Tanaka

March 9, 2000

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The National Academy of Practice (NAP) has elected Western University of

Health Sciences (WesternU) president Philip Pumerantz, PhD, as a

distinguished practitioner in osteopathic medicine.

Dr. Pumerantz will receive his NAP medallion at a banquet in Bethesda,

Maryland, on April 28.

Founded in 1981 on the desires of its members to advise Congress and the

Executive Branch of the United States government, the NAP is the only

interdisciplinary assemblage of health care practitioners in the country.

It is comprised of experts from the following fields: osteopathic

medicine, dentistry, medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, podiatry,

psychology, social work and veterinary medicine. According to the Maryland-

based NAP, only 100 “”active distinguished practitioners”” may be elected to

each field’s academy.

Distinguished practitioners are individuals chosen by their peers who have

spent a significant portion of their professional career as practitioners

in the delivery to, and practice of health care to the consumer.

Distinguished practitioners also have been judged by their individual

Academy to have made significant and enduring contributions to the

advancement of professional practice.

“”Osteopathic medicine always has looked at the patient as a ‘whole,’ and

I’m proud to have been elected to an organization that takes a whole,

interdisciplinary approach to health care,”” Dr. Pumerantz said.

WesternU is the home of five health professions graduate schools,

including the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP), which

graduates about 175 new physicians each year – the most of any medical

school in Southern California.

The NAP regularly holds what it calls interdisciplinary health policy

forums. Forum topics have included emphasis on how the various health

disciplines can work together; quality health care for the elderly with

results published in “”Aging in Good Health, Health Children 2000;”” changes

in health care delivery and financing; ethical decision-making in

relationship to managed care, which produced the “”Ethical Guidelines for

Professional Care and Services in a Managed Care Environment;”” and others.

Results of these efforts have included the previously mentioned

book, “”Ethical Guidelines,”” and position papers distributed to members of

Congress on seven topics including early care of children; mandatory AIDS

testing; the use of animals in health research; financing and organization

of health care; health care reform; and the ethics of managed care.

For more information on the NAP, visit its Web site at

http://views.vcu.edu/nap.

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