Complementary / alternative medicine and medical education

ABSTRACT

To determine the prevalence, scope, and diversity of medical education in complementary / alternative Medicine [CAM] and to offer clear goals and concrete suggestions for incorporating CAM therapies as an integral part of medical curriculum. The information for this review was compiled by searching the Pub Med and MEDLINE databases looking for articles published until 1 September 2006. Only articles published in English were considered. The search terms included keywords "complementary and alternative medicine" combined with "medical education", and "medical curriculum". Full texts of articles were obtained and their references were checked for additional data when appropriate. Public interests in and use of CAM modalities has grown markedly over the last decade. Increased use of CAM has made it necessary that the topic be included in medical education from the preclinical years through residency and beyond. There has been progress in this direction in recent years, with a steady increase in the number of medical schools that include CAM therapies in their curricula. There, remains, however, a lack of clear goals and objective suggestions for implementing these changes. There is tremendous heterogeneity and diversity in content, format and requirements among courses in CAM. An initiative with administrative and institutional support is necessary to incorporate CAM therapies as an integral part of the medical curriculum