Recognition of Integrative Medicine and CAM in Europe and worldwide
Numerous studies show a generally recognized fact that more and more people globally express the need for holistic or complementary medical methods in addtition to the achievements of conventional medicine. A growing variety of complementary medicine techniques is offered gobally, Europewide and increasingly also in Finland.
Similarly, the urgent need has emerged for scientifically based evidence regarding effectiveness and safety of these complementary medical systems. State promoted research in Europe and the United States has significantly contributed to the systematic evaluations of these methods in the last years.
- Swiss "Programm Evaluation Komplementärmedizin" 2006 (PEK) Final report(pdf)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health http://nccam.nih.gov/
- Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM)http://cam.cancer.gov/
This trend is also reflected in the nomenclature change, "Alternative Medicine" and often contemptuously, "paramedicine," in Finland "uskomuslääketiede=belief-medicine" has become a "Complementary Medicine" (CAM = complementary / alternative medicine), and today we talk about "Integrative Medicine".
Chairs and Departments for Integrative Medicine have been established in several European universitys, for example:
- University of Duisburg-Essen (D)
- University of Wiitten/Herdecke: Lehrstuhl für Medizintheorie, Integrative und Anthroposophische Medizin (D)
- University of Witten/Herdecke: Institute for Applied Epistemology and Medical Methodology Freiburg (D)
- University of Berlin Charite: Forschungsinstitut Havelhöhe (D)
- Universitys of Berlin Charite:Institut für Sozialmedizin, Epidemiologie und Gesundheitsökonomie, Projektbereich Komplementäre und Integrative Medizin (D)
- University of Zürich (CH)
- University of Bern (CH)
- Hogeschool Leiden (NL)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- University of Tromsø NAFKAM (N)
There are more and more high quality Peer-reviewed Journals available which publish high level studies in the field of CAM and intergrative medicine.
In January 2014 the World Health Organization (WHO) publihshed an extensive report about their strategy for 2014-2023 regarding Traditional Medicine "WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023".