Message from the Medical Director

Richard L. Faiola, MD, ABFM

By becoming a patient of David Overton, PA-C and Natural Medicines and Family Practice, you have chosen to share in the exploration of services commonly labeled "alternative" or "complementary" medicine. Alternative and conventional medicines are talked about as though they are separate things, but we understand there is only one kind of useful medicine: that which benefits the patient.

Some diagnostic and therapeutic methods are widely practiced and might be labeled "orthodox."  Some of them are well understood and thus might be labeled "scientific" or "evidenced based." It takes time for new science to become "orthodox." Physicians used aspirin for over a century before they understood how it worked. More recently, it took about ten years of persistent struggle for one researcher to gain widespread acceptance of the infectious cause (a parasite called H. pylori) of most gastric ulcers. Some of the most exciting work in medicine is in areas not yet "orthodox," and these are the areas in which David Overton has become an expert.

Some of his methods are unorthodox, with varying degrees of reliable science behind them. Some testing and treatment methods will prove highly effective, and will eventually be well understood and adopted by the wider medical community. Other methods will prove not so helpful and be discarded---even by Mr. Overton. This willingness to reject or discard the useless is hallmark of an honest practitioner. I am impressed with David Overton's strong commitment to continued learning in his field and the rigorous scientific approach he takes to an area often considered poorly informed, gullible or fraudulent.

David Overton has excellent training and over 20 years' practice as a Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant. He is licensed in the state of Washington as a board-certified Physician Assistant, which requires supervision by a MD or DO. My role as Medical Director is to regularly review a representative sample of his medical records and ensure that he is meeting the standards of a legitimate practice, his methods do not unnecessarily endanger his patients, and that professional ethics are being observed. Should any patient ever believe those standards have not been met, I wish to be contacted directly about it.   Though certain insurance companies require that the practice be under my name, I do not assume responsibility for individual patients. David Overton is not my employee. He owns his own business, sets his own fees, and takes his own call.

Patients of Mr. Overton without their own physician are welcome in our office (Heritage Family Medicine, 360-704-2362, http://www.heritagefamilymedicine.com), but only if seen in that setting will we assume an individual patient-physician relationship.

I am trained as a board-certified specialist in family medicine. My MD is from Loma Linda University, and my specialty training took place in Chicago and Boston. After 21 years practicing in Chehalis, WA, I traveled as a doctor for four years, and then returned to found my new clinic in west Olympia. I am an "orthodox" allopathic physician, but have always had an interest in "alternative" ideas. I have an excellent acupuncturist working in my office. I once tried to recruit David Overton into a complimentary alternative medicine center I sought to found. Now, I am truly excited to join him in his own practice.

It is good medicine to seek the safest, most natural approach to maintaining individuals in good health. It is not "alternative" - it is what all practitioners should be doing. It is also the heritage of my training. Loma Linda University is a world leader in advanced medical technologies, but it was founded as a religious institution whose motto remains "To take man whole," and whose founder once wrote: The Lord has given some simple herbs of the field that at times are beneficial; and if every family were educated in how to use these herbs in case of sickness, much suffering might be prevented, and no doctor need be called. These old-fashioned, simple herbs, used intelligently, would have recovered many sick who have died under drug medication. (EGW Feb. 10, 1897). It is a privilege to join David Overton in the exploration and enhancement of that tradition.