Integrated Natural Medicine with Modern Medicine: A Concept to Fulfill the Primary Health Care Need in Developing Countries
Viroj Wiwanitkit
Professor, Senior Consultant, Public Heath Curriculum, SurinRajabhat University, Surin, Thailand.
*Corresponding Author
Viroj Wiwanitkit
Professor, Senior Consultant, Public Heath Curriculum,
SurinRajabhat University, Surin, Thailand.
E-mail: wviroj@yahoo.com
Received: June 17, 2015; Published: June 22, 2015
Citation: Viroj Wiwanitkit (2015) Integrated Natural Medicine with Modern Medicine: A Concept to Fulfill The Primary Health Care Need in Developing Countries. Int J Clin Ther Diagn. 3(1e) 1. doi: dx.doi.org/10.19070/2332-2926-150008e
Copyright: VirojWiwanitkit© 2015. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
In the present day, there are many available health sectors and systems to serve for clinical management of the patients. In addition to the modern medicine, there are also other available systems. In India, there are at least 8 systems, “allopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Swa-rigpa, Unani, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Yoga [1].” The integration between different systems can be seen and it is expected to be the successful way to serve the present need of world population [2]. Singer and Adams noted that “health service managers describe the addition of CAM in their service as enabling patients who would otherwise not be able to afford CAM to gain access to these treatments thereby increasing healthcare choices [2].” To reach the success, “interprofessional relationships and multidisciplinary referral networks” is important [3]. Focusing on naturopathy, the bridging with modern evidence based medicine (EBM) is needed. McCarty et al., noted that “integrating EBM into naturopathic clinical teaching, strengthening of professional relationships, exposure to clinical experiences outside the usual naturopathic scope, reaffirmation of naturopathic training and profession, observation of clinical and administrative resources and practices, and recommendations for future clinical exchanges [4].”
As already noted, such integrated system can be useful. However, the naturopathy is usually not available in many developed countries. For example, in Thailand, the system has just been started and the first curriculum was set by SurinRajabhat University. Indeed, the set system can be the clue for fulfill the requirement of primary health care. The role of naturopathy can serve the basic diagnosis and treatment of basic illness in the community. This can support the role of modern practitioner as well as traditional physicians who perform high skilled medical care for complex disease. This can promote the use of natural product for health and support the practice of public health workers.
References
- Shankar D (2015) Health sector reforms for 21st century healthcare. J Ayurveda Integr Med 6(1): 4-9.
- Singer J, Adams J (2014) Integrating complementary and alternative medicine into mainstream healthcare services: the perspectives of health service managers. BMC Complement Altern Med 14: 167.
- Gray B, Orrock P (2014) Investigation into factors influencing roles, relationships, and referrals in integrative medicine. J Altern Complement Med 20(5): 342-346.
- McCarty RL, Fenn R, Gaster B, Weber W, Guiltinan J (2011) Building bridges: qualitative assessment of a clinical faculty exchange between a naturopathic and an allopathic medical training program. Explore (NY) 7(4): 249-253.
