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Status of complementary and alternative medicine in European medical schools
Orsolya Varga1, Sándor Márton, Péter Molnár
1Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Centre, Hungary. vargao@jaguar.unideb.hu
Background:
The aim of this study was to investigate whether Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) education is part of the regular medical curriculum in European universities and whether it correlates with the public demand for CAM methods.
Materials And Methods:
Using the World Directory of Medical Schools, 265 medical faculties in EU countries were contacted via e-mail or regular post and asked to fill out a questionnaire of 7 questions concerning CAM education in their establishments.
Results:
Only 40% of the responding universities were offering some form of CAM training. We could not show any correlation between the public demand for CAM methods and the availability of CAM training in medical universities.
Conclusions:
The growing popularity of CAM makes it very important for physicians to gain information on these methods and techniques, thus better incorporation of CAM education into the regular medical curriculum is needed in all European medical faculties.