Why decades of advocacy haven’t transformed medical schools, but Alice Walton is.

For more than three decades, visionary advocates have worked to transform American medical education toward a more integrative, whole-person approach. While these efforts have faced challenges, they’ve created a foundation for innovation that new institutions like the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine are uniquely positioned to build upon.

The Evolution of Medical Curriculum

Medical education has undergone significant positive changes since the 1990s. The rigid Flexnerian model that separated basic sciences from clinical training has evolved into organ systems-based curricula that integrate pharmacology, pathophysiology and clinical skills. These demonstrate that reform is possible when changes align with existing institutional strengths.

Today’s health care landscape makes integrative, whole-person health medical education more compelling than ever. Physician burnout rates have reached crisis levels, with studies showing more than 60 percent of physicians experiencing symptoms. Mental health challenges among health care providers and patients continue rising, while chronic diseases now account for 90 percent of health care spending. Health care costs consume nearly 20 percent of the GDP and are rising yearly. Our existing model of health care is inadequate to change this trajectory of worse outcomes and higher costs.

These challenges create an imperative to transform both the training and delivery of medicine. I believe the best opportunity is in a transformation toward a whole-person health model that features an integrative medicine approach—incorporating nutrition, mind-body practices and complementary therapies into mainstream medical training as cost-effective solutions for chronic disease management and preventive care. We have existing models of care, but they’re not being used widely or effectively.

The Bravewell Collaborative: Pioneering Investment

From 1999 to 2016, the Bravewell Collaborative, a philanthropic initiative led by visionary leaders Penny George and Christy Mack, invested nearly $30 million to accelerate integrative medicine adoption in academic medical centers. Bravewell’s approach was comprehensive and forward-thinking. They funded the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health (formerly CAHCIM), helping it grow from pioneering institutions to a substantial network of medical schools. The Consortium’s Education Working Group developed core competencies in integrative medicine, formally endorsed in 2003, providing valuable guidelines for curriculum development. And they also supported clinical care at 10 major university centers, created research infrastructure, and produced “The New Medicine,” an award-winning PBS series that introduced integrative approaches to mainstream audiences.

Learning From Implementation Challenges

To effectively and efficiently deliver whole-person health, we need to broaden methodologies included in health care. We must address diet, lifestyle, mental, emotional, relationship health, meaning and purpose. To do this effectively there are key factors to consider: the importance of faculty engagement, curriculum design that fits within existing frameworks, presenting complementary approaches within evidence-based medicine standards, and developing reliable teaching resources.

At existing educational facilities, faculty buy-in has proven essential, particularly among medical school professors trained in rigorous scientific methodology. The most successful programs have found ways to bridge different healing traditions with conventional medical science. Curriculum integration works best when new content enhances rather than competes with established subjects.

The evidence-based medicine paradigm that defines modern medical education creates both challenges and opportunities. While this framework maintains high standards, it also encourages research that can and should validate integrative approaches and build academic credibility.

Current Progress

Research indicates that appoximately half of U.S. medical schools now offer some complementary and integrative medicine content,1 representing significant progress from earlier decades. Where programs exist, they’re increasingly sophisticated and evidence-based, building on lessons learned from pioneering efforts. Yet, our health care system and its outcomes have not meaningfully improved. Evolving medical educational institutions is a tall order, representing perhaps more effort than starting anew.

The Alice L. Walton School: A New Chapter

The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, AR, which opened in July 2025, represents an exciting new chapter in medical education innovation. With substantial backing from Alice Walton, the school “integrates traditional science with arts, humanities and whole-health principles, emphasizing preventive care and attention to mental, emotional, social and lifestyle factors in patient wellness.”2

The school’s leadership includes physicians and administrators with strong conventional credentials and academic credibility. They have the foundation to build bridges between conventional and integrative approaches necessary to manifest their vision. Integrating the arts and humanities in medical education is a novel approach. I would love to see even more, like integrating traditional healing modalities, botanical medicine, targeted nutritional therapy. All evidence informed and carrying decades long traditions of beneficial use by providers trained in whole person health approaches. These providers stand ready to help.

Opportunities for Innovation

Based on decades of reform efforts, several strategies could help the Alice L. Walton School and similar institutions achieve breakthrough success:

• Collaborative Leadership: Consider including practitioners from complementary disciplines in meaningful faculty roles, creating opportunities for authentic interdisciplinary education and mentorship.

• Innovative Clinical Training: Partnerships with established integrative medicine centers could provide students with hands-on experience in collaborative care models, complementing classroom learning with practical application.

• Research Excellence: Investment in rigorous research that validates integrative approaches using gold-standard methodologies could address evidence gaps while building academic credibility. Economic data increasingly supports this direction—studies show integrative approaches can reduce health care costs by 20 to 30 percent for chronic conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease, while improving patient satisfaction and outcomes.

• Faculty Development: Recruiting faculty already committed to integrative approaches, alongside traditional educators, could create a culture of innovation rather than resistance to change.

Looking Forward

The Institute of Natural Medicine (INM) is leaning in help raise awareness of the role of complementary and integrative health professionals and their crucial role in whole person health. Learn about our work at naturemed.org.

The Alice L. Walton School’s substantial resources, freedom from traditional institutional constraints, and commitment to innovation position it remarkably well to advance medical education reform. I applaud the courage to take on this challenge! By building on the valuable groundwork laid by Bravewell and other pioneers, while learning from implementation challenges, new institutions have unprecedented opportunities to create truly transformative educational models.

The decades-long effort to reform medical education has created essential infrastructure, research base, and cultural awareness that make this an opportune time for breakthrough innovation in whole-person medical training. I hope the Alice L. Walton School takes advantage of the rich and deep history of whole-person health that already exists in the philosophies and practices of the thousands of practitioners who have been educated and trained outside the conventional model. What a rich resource they all are.

References:

1 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4334197/.

2 www.medboundtimes.com/medbound-blog/worlds-richest-woman-launches-groundbreaking-medical-school-in-arkansas.

Michelle Simon, PhD, ND President & CEO, Institute for Natural Medicine In 1992, the leadership core of naturopathic doctors established the Institute for Natural Medicine (INM) as a not for profit organization dedicated to advancing natural medicine. The purpose of the INM is to increase awareness of, broaden public access to, and encourage research about natural medicine and therapies. Among its milestones the INM counts the launch of the Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges (AANMC) as an independent organization, leading California’s efforts to obtain licensure, developing an interactive childhood education program focused on healthy eating and lifestyles called Naturally Well in 2017, and expanding residency access by establishing and funding a residency program in 2018. INM has joined forces with the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), serving as the charitable arm, to deepen access to naturopathic care, public education and research. Dr. Michelle Simon serves as president and CEO of INM, is a licensed naturopathic physician, clinician, educator and leader in many organizations dedicated to improving the quality and delivery of health care. In addition to holding a naturopathic doctorate from Bastyr University, she also holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Simon has served on the boards for the Integrative Healthcare Policy Consortium (IHPC), the AANP and the Naturopathic Physicians Research Institute (NPRI). Dr. Simon also served nine years on the Washington State Health Technology Clinical Committee which is part of the Health Technology Assessment program that examines the scientific evidentiary basis for efficacy, safety and cost effectiveness of health care technologies. She was also an invited participant for health care economics at “Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public” at the Institute for Medicine (IOM) in 2009. Dr. Simon was recognized as the 2018 Physician of the Year by the AANP.
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