The integrated taxonomy of health care: classifying both complementary and biomedical practices using a uniform...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Taxonomy Development
• Integrative Health Care

Background:

• Existing taxonomies for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) often lack clear categorization and vertical differentiation.
• Previous systems struggled to isolate modalities to single categories and define relationships across techniques, therapies, and medical systems.
• CAM's integration within the broader healthcare landscape has been inadequately addressed by prior classification efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel taxonomy for health care that precisely maps and describes the interrelationships of CAM modalities.
• To address limitations in existing taxonomies, specifically regarding single-category isolation and verticality (scale of application).
• To create a classification system that fully integrates biomedicine and CAM within a unified healthcare framework.

Main Methods:

• The Integrated Taxonomy of Health Care (ITHC) was developed through a three-stage process.
• Key stages included creating a standardized health glossary, analyzing existing taxonomies, and employing an iterative classification protocol.
• The iterative process involved classifying modalities and systems, refining the glossary and protocol when single classification failed.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive vertical taxonomy was established, differentiating techniques, modalities, domains, health care systems, and integrative health care.
• The ITHC features eleven distinct domains, including substance-based, device-based, manipulation-focused, movement-based, mind-body, and energy-based work.
• Modalities are assigned to domains based on their primary client interaction mode, as documented in practitioner literature.

Conclusions:

• The ITHC successfully assigns modalities to single domains with minimal interpretation.
• The taxonomy fully resolves the issue of taxonomic verticality, providing clear differentiation across application scales.
• The ITHC design effectively integrates complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with conventional biomedicine.