I use the term Comprehensive Integrated Medicine or Comprehensive Medicine to describe such an area of expertise.  If I talk with a priest, I would be disappointed if he was familiar with only the new testament, and needed to send me to a subspecialist to discuss the old testament.  I look at medicine in the same light.  Car mechanics, ship builders, librarians and computer geeks.

"Comprehensive" has traditionally been used by medical practitioners for the conglomeration of subspecialists all under one roof, i.e., "multispecialty group."  It has never been used to describe an individual physician or other medical practitioner with an intense medical-knowledge-base of all subspecialties.  I call myself a "comprehensivist," because it refers to both knowledge of all areas of medicine (Integrated Medicine), tied to intense, thorough and complete evaluation of a symptom ("Medical Detective-ism").  It also swings the pendulum of medical stigma away from "alternative," which mainstream medicine places to the "left," in the direction of snake oil and quackery.  "Snake Oil" is the most "left" a practitioner can go.  "Quackbusters" are definitely the most "right."  I'm not completely against "quackbustering," as it allows checks & balances to help keep everything a bit more focused:  If only they were a bit more open-minded...  I thought of creating a "quackbuster-buster" group, but it would inevitably lead to "quackbuster-buster-busters."  There are many alternative practitioners who add fuel to the fire as well, by promoting services and goods which I would agree to have the element of "snake oil," and not following the hippocratic rule of "primum non nocere," i.e., "first do no harm."  They are the modern "Kings & Dukes" of our society (read "Huckleberry Finn)".

One of my main concerns is if mainstream self-interest groups continue to preserve "snake oil" perspectives on all areas of non-mainstream medicine, it will be at the expense of new discoveries launched from innovative, open and un-biased minds, and prevent or delay new medical milestones.  Astronomer Carl Sagan once gave a speech expressing the importance how new research will lead to technology we'll benefit from (click the hyperlink above to hear him chat about where idealistic dreams begin, and how 20/20 hindsight should encourage us to maintain an open mind about new and innovative ideas.  Carl illustrates it further by exploring how science can demystify a myth, and explain the "unexplainable."  Many discoveries in medicine come from clinically serendipidous magical moments, working on a hunch or intuition.  Penicillin and H. pylori are examples, along with the idea of a spherical planet earth.

The discovery of penicillin's benefits sat in the medical literature for 14 years after Dr Fleming first presented it at a conference.  Apparently everyone at that meeting was either asleep or closed-minded.  An astute researcher realized the importance of penicillin after doing a literature search, realizing the importance of Fleming's paper, written 14 years before.  Doctor Robert Atkins' contribution to carbohydrate research is still misconstrued.  The obesity epidemic is the price we're paying for the ignorance, and there are still more type-2 diabetics on medications than should be.  I blame most of this on Atkins' 14-day "induction diet," which gives an obese individual instant gratification in weight-loss reduction.  Atkins' "maintenance diet" leads a consumer room to decide whether "optimization" is more important than taste-bud "deprivation."  People prefer quick-fix medicine over long-term changes in life-style, and see life-long dietary restrictions as forms of deprivation instead of optimization.  I often use the analogy that if my gas tank had taste buds, I'd still wouldn't put sugar in my tank.  The car runs better on 93-octane, and therefore "optimization" trumps "deprivation." I wouldn't be surprised if scientific research led us to a new understanding of the role our taste buds play in our desires to be instantly gratified, i.e., not only by food. Spirituality is actually significantly affected by those little bumps on the back of one's tongue.

We benefit from new ideas and an open mind to absorb them.  The pharmaceutical industry has recently become "nutriceutical."   "Comprehensive" medicne allows my pendulum to rest in the middle, perhaps metaphorically no different than the jungian architypal-spiritual swing.  And I do not know all there is to know about all areas of medicine, but I'm "comprehensively" working on it.

Comprehensive Integrated Medicine has been the best approach for me to effectively treat chronic illness.  So many patients have sought my help in solving the mysteries of symptoms which have severely affected their quality of life.  On the average, each patient that sees me for these particular ailments already have been evaluated by fifteen to twenty health practitioners, showing up at my office door with either partial or no success of treating the ailment.  The alternatives to mainstream medicine will lead patients to kinesiologists, acupuncturists, homeopaths, medical intuitives, iridologists, soothsayers, herbalists, bodhitsatvas, and many others.  I once had a patient come to my office asking for medical treatment of her parasite, specifically, Entamoeba histolytica.  She told me it was diagnosed by a psychic.  I told her I had open-minded belief systems, however, that I would like to verify the psychic's diagnosis with a stool test.  The patient reluctantly agreed, as she had 100% faith in the psychic, and thus saw no need for the test.  The stool test revealed Entamoeba histolytica, I treated her with metronidazole, yodoxin and herbs, and she got better.

There is fear associated with the unknown, when there's an opinion or belief unlike our own:  There's a tendency to run from it, hide from it, attack it when confronted.    "Differences of opinion:   That's what makes horseracing." -Mark Twain    It's due to different belief and value systems, which create the different realities each one of us sees.  Only when reality itself is the litmus test, no one's wrong.  The collection of similar realities creates the "norm."  The norm is not quick to openness and change as both represent instability.  A sound mind, i.e., a healthy and intelligent mind with good common sense, but without wisdom (i.e., ignorance), or with a strong self-interest, will not accept change, for fear of making a costly choice.  New ideas are usually perceived as exciting, but threatening until proven otherwise.  When the norm is the litmus test, then the norm can declare all other belief and value systems "wrong," and "not the norm."  Even when each of us looks at the same picture, we might not see the same image, as evidenced by the  M. C. Escher  tessellation " Sky & Water 1, 1938."(click either highlighted word to learn a bit more on Escher, and his drawing "sky & water").One person might only see the birds, while another sees only the fish.  Then there are those who see both.

Roosevelt   (FDR) said "there's nothing to fear but fear itself."  The evolution of Integrated Medicine from mainstream and alternative medicine is often hindered by conflicting value and belief systems.  Fear due to lack of understanding should be confronted, analyzed, embraced, confirmed and shared.  Otherwise, "progress" is hindered, and conflicts will never resolve.

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Dr Bolte runs an comprehensive integrated medical clinic and urgent care center in midtown Manhattan, and makes physician house call visits to local area midtown nyc residents and hotel guests. More info on Doctor Bolte on his personal webpage and New York Urgent Care website.