The current study highlights the development of a new online community designed to bridge patients seeking treatment for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and conventional western medicine. The website was designed as a portal to provide caregivers, doctors, patients, and medical professionals a place to exchange information and offer support for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This is the first study of its kind to focus on this topic.
The website is a free resource for anyone interested in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, but also a valuable vehicle for healthcare providers and researchers to share ideas and data on the care of patients with CAM.According to the study, there is a gap in knowledge about how to approach patients with CAM. Of the surveyed doctors, more than half did not know how to recommend a complementary medicine clinic and more than a quarter said they had never received training in holistic practitioners.
Overall, the lack of training leads to practices that do not adhere to standards or are at best a hodgepodge of techniques from various modalities. It is the responsibility of healthcare providers and researchers to address this gap in knowledge.The study recommends developing guidelines for the use of CAM by healthcare providers and researchers, including information about the dangers of some common medications and herbal supplements used by CAM practitioners.
The report identifies several recommendations for improvement in the use of these treatments. It calls for publishing guidelines and training manuals that are consistent across the profession. Additionally, it recommends that all practitioners be trained in order to make CAM acceptable to the American Medical Association.Another recommendation deals with the handling of patients who seek treatment with alternative medicine.
The report recommends that providers create a detailed discharge planning to help them follow CAM prescriptions and to ensure that patients understand the full implications of such therapies. It calls for a standardized form to be used when providing such treatments and for patients to provide the same to their treatment provider. Such a plan should include all the possible risks and benefits of alternative therapies and be accompanied by a risk-benefit analysis of the potential benefit and a complete list of possible contraindications. In addition, it calls for a brief, easy-to-read version of the discharge plan to be included on all patient discharge instructions and in the patient's billing.
The plan should be signed by the practitioner and should be kept on file at all times.While there is currently no National Herbal Supplement Registry, there is an emerging trend to collect and classify herbal supplement use in clinical trials. Clinical documentation is an important part of scientific study and it is essential to ensure that all the subjects used for research are adequately documented. Some practitioners have argued that some therapies do not interact well with complementary medicines and that such therapies should be classified separately. However, in practice, such therapies are often grouped based on the results of studies.
This leads to practices that may not be scientifically sound, such as the grouping of amino acids or the grouping of chondroitin, glucosamine, calcium, and MSM along with antioxidants.For practitioners in the United States, the law does not require them to receive specialized training to practice alternative medicine and in fact, is the opposite. Although under the auspices of regulated professional organizations, some professional organizations, such as the American Association of Homeopaths, have been successful in educating practitioners on the appropriate use of their profession and on the use of alternative medicines and therapies.
However, many other organizations have been unable to establish standards for homeopathy. Hence, in spite of the fact that over two hundred million people in the United States use complementary and alternative medicines, the scope for professional regulation of these practices is extremely limited. As a result, in the vast majority of cases, homeopathic remedies are given in place of conventional medical care.