Integrative medicine is an approach to care that generally involves approaching a person’s health and disease from a wholistic perspective with thoughtful consideration of the risks and benefits of interventions from a variety of therapeutic practices. Each clinician’s approach to care is unique. Integrative clinicians may or may not be board-certified in Integrative Medicine through fellowship training; they may or may not hold certifications in other formal training that permit them to offer other therapeutic interventions in their practice.
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) believes that physicians can best serve their patients when evidence-based integrative approaches to care are recognized, acknowledged, and offered alongside conventional care. The AAFP advocates for evidence-based evaluations of integrative medicial approaches (formerly referred to as complementary and alternative medicine). When examining integrative medicine methods from different traditions, considerations for cultural perspectives and explanatory models should be made during study design, research conduction, and interpretation of results.
Furthermore, family physicians are encouraged to gain exposure to, or formal training in non-Western methods of healing to better facilitate appropriate education, treatment and counseling of patients. (1997) (September 2024 COD)