Complementary Medicine (CM) - Week 11 Integrative Medicine (IM) PDF

Complementary Medicine (CM)- IMAM 313 Week 11: Integrative Medicine (IM) Dr Saud Alsanad “Integrative Medicine” (IM) refers to "health care that uses all appropriate therapeutic approaches, conventional and alternative, within a framework that focuses on the therapeutic relationship and the whole pe...

Complementary Medicine (CM)- IMAM 313 Week 11: Integrative Medicine (IM) Dr Saud Alsanad “Integrative Medicine” (IM) refers to "health care that uses all appropriate therapeutic approaches, conventional and alternative, within a framework that focuses on the therapeutic relationship and the whole person". As Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) use is so common among patients, it has been argued that concepts of Integrative Medicine (IM) would be useful for them. The rationale behind IM is to include the best practices of conventional and complementary therapy, uniting them into a holistic approach that helps them to obtain the benefits of the two different approaches, while considering the possibility that they may occasionally interfere with each other. Accordingly, qualified people in this highly specialized field should be available to advise patients about the safe use of CAM. The unique advantage of CAM intervention is the holistic concept which is well suited to patients, especially for those who have particular psychological and spiritual needs, such as cancer patients. Holistic approaches give attention to these needs and focus on the patient–doctor relationship and understanding the patient’s perspective by means of multimodal concepts. Patients want to regain some control and enhance the quality of their lives and not just focus on physiological outcomes. At present there is no consensus about which CAM treatments should be integrated into health care systems; for example, there is no good agreement between health care professionals about acupuncture for pain. It is difficult to find one model which could satisfy all the needs of different regulatory systems. The WHO now encourages and supports Member States to implement some forms of CAM into national health care systems and to ensure their rational use and this will help to develop novel approaches to integrated health care. However, integrating CAM into conventional health care systems remains risky, especially as most CAM practices are not evidence-based, and more research to examine how it can be integrated into health care systems is needed. In Europe, the ‘CAMbrella’ project has proposed six main areas for research to evaluate the potential implementation of CAM practices to the health care systems in the EU. These areas include (1) investigating CAM prevalence in Europe; (2) identifying the need and attitudes of EU citizens to CAM practices; (3) ensuring CAM safety; (4) evaluating CAM effectiveness compared to conventional medicine; (5) studying the effects of meaning and context on CAM outcomes; (6) proposing different models for integrating CAM into existing health care systems. In addition, studies evaluating existing various models of CAM integration are recommended in order to identify their strengths and limitations, and thus produce innovative models of CAM which would address the needs of the public appropriately.