Medical practice, integration

Fong FIFI. Integration of herbal medicine into modern medical practices issues and prospects. Integr Cancer Ther 2002 l(3) 287-293. 

Figure 1 Five major CAM domains. NCCAM defines complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices as those not presently considered an integral part of conventional medicine. As CAM modalities are proven safe and effective, they may become adopted into mainstream medical practice. The five areas shown in the schematic represent but one way to array CAM approaches. Examples in each area are provided below (see NCCAM strategic plan at http //www.nccam.nih.gov for more details) ... 

C. Lovis, R. H. Baud, and J.-R. Scherrer. 1998. Internet integrated in the daily medical practice within an electronic patient record. Computers in Biology and Medicine 28 567-579. 

Practitioners who design, implement, monitor, and evaluate medication therapy bear an important responsibility to their patients and society. Development of these abilities requires an integration of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that can be acquired only through a structured learning process that includes classroom work, independent study, hands-on practice, and, ultimately, involvement with actual patients. 

This volume covers topics including cultural perspectives in psychiatric diagnosis and psychopharmacotherapy, differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of psychotropics, pharmacogenetics of ethnic populations, ethnic variations in psychotropic responses, complementary medicines in mental disorders, attitudes towards psychotropic medications, prescribing practices in Asia-Pacific countries, pharmaco-economic implications, integrating theory and practice, and... 

Pharmacy educators are poised to adapt to the changes in practice that will result from the widespread adoption of drug therapies based on pharma-cogenomics. Pharmacy education has been in a constant state of evolution since the early twentieth century, when the education of pharmacists consisted almost entirely of basic chemistry applied to those compounds thought to be useful as medications. At that time, many academic pharmacy programs were housed in departments of chemistry. Schools and colleges of pharmacy now are independent academic units, many of which are fully integrated into major academic health science centers. 

Chemists established disciplinary identity and professional prestige within the academies and the universities. They also successfully integrated laboratory practice, that is, the manual arts, not only into the professional medical and pharmacy schools of the university but into the "scientific" and "philosophical" heart of the university as well. 

---