Toward Interdisciplinary Care: Bridging the Divide between Biomedical and Alternative Health Care Providers

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Integrative Medicine
• Healthcare Policy

Background:

• Physicians face increasing calls to address complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use.
• Acknowledging diverse patient health beliefs and practices is crucial for comprehensive care.
• Integrating CAM information into health professions training is a growing need.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish an interdisciplinary advisory committee (AC) comprising CAM practitioners and institutional personnel.
• To incorporate CAM-related information into health professions training programs.
• To analyze the collaborative process and perceptions of medicine and clinical teaching among AC members.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative analysis of data from quarterly meetings, an annual retreat, and other venues over two years.
• Semi-structured interviews with 10 biomedical and CAM practitioner committee members.
• Utilized N5 software to identify themes and patterns in collected information.

Main Results:

• Confirmed differing perspectives on health and healing between allopathic and CAM AC members.
• Identified three key themes of tension: defining evidence, patient interaction, and the role of experience in learning.
• Developed recommendations for designing interdisciplinary CAM curricula.

Conclusions:

• Despite frequent differences, CAM and allopathic providers shared common goals and demonstrated successful collaboration.
• The project highlights the potential for interdisciplinary collaboration between CAM and allopathic practitioners.
• Findings offer a useful model for institutions seeking to implement interdisciplinary care.