Integration of complementary and alternative medicine therapies (CAM) with conventional medicine is occurring in hospitals and physicians offices, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are covering CAM therapies, insurance coverage for CAM is increasing, and integrative medicine centers and clinics are being established, many with close ties to medical schools and teaching hospitals. In determining what care to provide, the goal should be comprehensive care that uses the best scientific evidence available regarding benefits and harm, encourages a focus on healing, recognizes the importance of compassion and caring, emphasizes the centrality of relationship-based care, encourages patients to share in decision making about therapeutic options, and promotes choices in care that can include complementary therapies where appropriate. Numerous approaches to delivering integrative medicine have evolved. Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States identifies an urgent need for health systems research that focuses on identifying the elements of these models, the outcomes of care delivered in these models, and whether these models are cost-effective when compared to conventional practice settings. It outlines areas of research in convention and CAM therapies, ways of integrating these therapies, development of curriculum that provides further education to health professionals, and an amendment of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act to improve quality, accurate labeling, research into use of supplements, incentives for privately funded research into their efficacy, and consumer protection against all potential hazards.

Explores the legal issues that health care providers, institutions, and regulators confront as they contemplate integrating complementary and alternative medicine into mainstream U.S. health care. A third of all Americans use complementary and alternative medicine—including chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy, nutritional and herbal treatments, and massage therapy—even when their insurance does not cover it and they have to pay for such treatments themselves. Nearly a third of U.S. medical schools offer courses on complementary and alternative therapies. Congress has created an Office of Alternative Medicine within the National Institutes of Health, and federal and state lawmakers have introduced legislation authorizing widespread use of such therapies. These institutional and legislative developments, argues Michael H. Cohen, express a paradigm shift to a broader, more inclusive vision of health care than conventional medicine admits. Cohen explores the legal issues that health care providers (both conventional and alternative), institutions, and regulators confront as they contemplate integrating complementary and alternative medicine into mainstream U.S. health care. Challenging traditional ways of thinking about health, disease, and the role of law in regulating health, Cohen begins by defining complementary and alternative medicine and then places the regulation of orthodox and alternative health care in historical context. He next examines the legal ramifications of complementary and alternative medicine, including state medical licensing laws, legislative limitations on authorized practice, malpractice liability, food and drug laws, professional disciplinary issues, and third-party reimbursement. The final chapter provides a framework for thinking about the possible evolution of the regulatory structure. This book is the first to set forth the emerging moral and legal authority on which the safe and effective practice of alternative health care can rest. It further suggests how regulatory structures might develop to support a comprehensive, holistic, and balanced approach to health, one that permits integration of orthodox medicine with complementary and alternative medicine, while continuing to protect patients from fraudulent and dangerous treatments.

This is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary book to focus on the ethical challenges of complementary and alternative medicine. It examines the ethical challenges that CAM raises for patients and their physicians, and for patient-physician relationships. The book is written by a multidisciplinary team of CAM ethics and policy analysts, researchers and thought-leaders who present a forward-looking exploration of their subject.

Conveys all the core topics emphasising the interplay between medical law and medical ethics in a unique chapter structure.

Comprehensive, practical and reflective of the current Australian and New Zealand legislative framework and regulations, this unique textbook addresses legal and ethical issues across a broad range of traditional and complementary practices. The sixth edition of Michael Weir’s classic textbook: • explores legal and ethical issues in clinical relationships, and the role of codes of ethics; • provides practical guidelines for setting up and running a professional practice; • systematically outlines the various aspects of the law which impact on clinical practice, including legal obligations to clients, consumer legislation, complaints processes, and professional boundaries; • explains how to navigate professional indemnity insurance; • outlines the steps you need to take in setting up a professional practice from establishing a business name to dealing with employees; • discusses and provides examples of how to deal with tricky ethical issues in daily practice. This edition includes updated legislation, a review of relevant case law, recent developments in the Unregistered Practitioners’ Code of Conduct and evidence about misconduct and regulatory action, and more in-depth discussion of ethical concepts. This is an essential read for students and practitioners of complementary medicine.

Gain a better understanding of the complex issues that will decide the future of health care!This is the first book of its kind in the rapidly growing field of complementary and alternative medicine. It addresses quality-of-care concerns and also focuses on the goals of many practitioners: to secure a firm place for their practice in health care systems and to establish levels of integration. Professionalism and Ethics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine is a unique textbook, but is also an essential resource for practitioners of complementary, alternative, and conventional medicine as well as the general public.This volume is divided into three parts. The first looks at a range of current concerns over complementary and alternative medicine, many of which raise ethical issues relating to quality of care. The next section, focusing on professionalism, indicates how practitioners must respond to the public’s concerns, especially in light of the public’s rising expectations of standards of care among all practitioners. The third part is comprised of case histories plus commentaries suitable for private study or classroom discussion.In this valuable book you will find: an examination of current issues in complementary/alternative medicine and bioethics explorations of other approaches to ethical dilemmas including “bottom-up” ethics such as consequentialism and social utilitarianism plus feminist ethics, virtue ethics, and more informed discussion of public expectations of professional roles and responsibilities case histories that illustrate ethical issues explanations of the Hippocratic Oath and complementary and alternative medicine codes an examination of the power structure within health care systems and much, much more!Growing from a course on ethics and law at the Homeopathic College of Canada in Toronto, Professionalism and Ethics in Complementary and Alternative Medicine will benefit everyone who is concerned with quality care and integrated medicine.

This new edition includes a discussion of the Privacy Act and national privacy principles now applicable to all complementary and alternative medicine practitioners; discussion of the recently passed civil liability legislation in NSW; additional sections on sexual harassment and work place health and safety, and much more.