This web site formerly hosted the web presence for the innovative, integrative psychiatry – functional medicine practice, Allied Psychophysiology (aka alliedpsych). Founded in 2005 by Lee Porter, MSN, NP-PP, CNS-PP, Allied Psychophysiology was the first advanced nurse healthcare clinical practice in North Carolina.
Psychophysiology is the branch of health science that studies the interrelationships between mind and body. Psychophysiology in clinical practice is a holistic mind-body approach to healthcare, a natural fit for the nursing approach to patient care.
In the process of pioneering a nursing centric approach to psychiatry in primary care, Lee Porter advanced state policies for credentialing nurse owned and managed healthcare practices. Lee Porter and the team at Allied Psych were active in working to expand access to care for patients and the right to obtain medical care reimbursement by third party healthcare payers, including Blue Cross, Tricare, and other major insurers in NC. Allied Psych was a small practice but well known and regarded by the medical community in NC. The regional Veterans Administration hospitals provided patient referrals to Allied Psych for care in SE NC. Lee Porter, NP, CNS served for years as a trusted regional caregiver for soldiers in need of treatment for brain injury (TBI) and PTSD. Lee Porter, NP, CNS, also provided regional assessments and pre-transplant care for patients referred from the Duke University Hospital organ transplant program.
Allied Psych operated for over a decade as a pioneering advanced nursing practice in beautiful Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, providing top quality care with significantly better patient outcomes than the typical rushed pharmaceutical-centric medical practices.
Policies constraining independence of advanced nurse practice, national policies blocking Medicare coverage for non-pharmaceutical treatments like biofeedback, and stigmatizing mental healthcare by reducing reimbursements for providers, results in limiting access to healthcare for patients. Lee Porter and the team at Allied Psych advocated for fair reimbursement, parity with medication management, of evidence based non-pharmaceutical, self regulation treatments such as biofeedback therapy. However, despite excellent outcomes, cost effective interventions, high patient satisfaction, the practice was a victim to nurse red-lining, mental health stigma, and a broken healthcare reimbursement system that favors less safe, more costly healthcare interventions promoted by Big Pharma and Big Medical Systems.