• Integrative Medicine

    The AAFP believes that physicians can best serve their patients by recognizing and acknowledging the availability of integrative medicine in their communities. The AAFP advocates for the evidence-based evaluations of integrative medicine (also referred to as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments and practices, using scientific and ethnographic methods, including quantitative and qualitative outcomes research of efficacy and effectiveness. When examining integrative medicine methods from different traditions, considerations for cultural perspectives and explanatory models should be made during the design and conduct of the research and for the interpretation of results.

    Furthermore, family physicians can pursue education relative to non-conventional methods of healing to better facilitate appropriate education, treatment and counseling of patients and consumers. (1997) (BOD 2019)