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Dr. Worden addresses
long-term causes and lifestyle changes for her patients.
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There aren’t many
physicians who have wed osteopathic and alternative medicines in
their careers as successfully as Katherine Worden, DO.
A 1988 graduate of MSUCOM, Dr.
Worden relocated to Arizona in 1989, went into general practice, and
eventually discovered that family practice as well as managed care made it
difficult for her to use and develop her extensive manual medicine skills. |
One of only 366 osteopathic physicians
nationwide certified in both neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic
manipulative medicine, Dr. Worden struck out and founded her own clinic—the
KateCare Osteopathic Center—five years ago. Specializing in manual medicine
and alternative modalities, the clinic employs massage therapists, nutrition and
stress counselors, and acupuncturists—all of whom work in conjunction with
each other according to the specific needs of the patients.
For Dr. Worden, this collaborative,
complementary approach is the best way to practice medicine, even if it has yet
to become the norm. "I am convinced that we can best help our patients if
we are truly holistic in our approach," Dr. Worden says. "There are
essentially four main stressors on the human system: electromagnetic/energy,
biomechanical, psychological/emotional/spiritual, and nutritional/toxicity. In
osteopathic medicine we tend to focus on the biomechanical issues, but all of
these factors need to be addressed."
This kind of approach can be thorough and
time-consuming, so just this past year Dr. Worden and the clinic took another
step away from bureaucratized medicine by resigning from insurance companies’
reimbursement programs. "It’s the best thing I’ve ever done," Dr.
Worden says. "Now I spend an hour with each patient and have half-hour
follow-ups. In a series of four to six visits I can be very thorough and start
to address long-term causes and lifestyle changes, not just symptoms."
Dr. Worden is part of a larger community of
health practitioners in Arizona who are collaborating in order to offer a
holistic, integrative approach to medicine. In 1997 Dr. Worden became a clinical
instructor at the University of Arizona Program of Integrated Medicine, a
program founded by Andrew Weil, MD, a world-renowned leader in integrative and
alternative medicines. At the program, Dr. Worden teaches the program’s
fellows and sits on a panel composed of acupuncturists and osteopathic,
allopathic, and homeopathic health practitioners. After a patient is interviewed
and evaluated, the panel discusses and develops the most appropriate course of
treatment.
Dr. Worden and her peers at the Program of
Integrated Medicine are part of the on-going effort to achieve equality and
recognition for osteopathic and integrative medicines and modalities. In 1998,
they achieved important recognition when Dr. Worden and a handful of faculty
associated with the program won a $5 million NIH grant to fund a five-year study
on the effects of osteopathic and integrative medicines on children with
cerebral palsy and chronic ear infections. The study is ongoing, and Dr. Worden
hopes that in the end it brings more attention and more research money to
osteopathic physicians and others with progressive approaches to medicine.
