Prince of Wales calls for integrated medicine
Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist
Addressing the World Health Assembly, the heir to the British throne called for patients to be offered the best of conventional and complementary medicine.
Although patients often turn to complementary medicine, like herbal remedies, when conventional medicine can't help, many doctors are sceptical about the alternative approach - especially when therapies haven't been proved by science. Prince Charles, a long-time advocate of complementary medicine, entered the debate with a keynote address to the World Health Assembly yesterday.
In the UK, he said, the Department of Health has reported that 80 per cent of doctor consultations are for chronic problems such as arthritis, diabetes and depression. Complementary approaches may help and there is, in fact, some good evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture and herbal medicine. He has set up the Foundation for Integrated Health to encourage better research and regulation into complementary medicine. His hope is that this can lead to patients being offered the best of conventional and complementary medicine to improve health and quality of life.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working with the Foundation globally and has many interesting projects of its own, he said. One is the production of a Global Atlas of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine which will show what countries around the world offer. To this end, he challenged those present to go away and develop an integrated approach to healthcare in their own country, maybe starting with a pilot or feasibility study.
Source
59th World Health Assembly 23rd May 2006
http://www.healthandage.com/public/health-center/36/news/8163/Prince-of-Wales-calls-for-integrated-medicine.html
