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www.linkque.comMany CAM treatments rely on practitioners' skill and intuition, and vary from patient to patient, making them hard to research through conventional, Western-style studies. And even where research has been done, in many instances the findings are inconsistent or inconclusive.
In the end, medical schools must weigh the value of solid science against the value of long-standing tradition and cultural beliefs. As Michael Cirigliano, associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania medical school, puts it, "If you see patients, you need to have an idea of what CAM is about." But he adds, "No one gets treated with complementary medicine until they have a [conventional medicine] diagnosis."
Even for those CAM practices that do merit a space in the curriculum, the space is usually small -- taught through electives and single lectures, with only a few threads woven into the central curriculum. At the very least, though, medical students at most schools are being taught to ask about the use of CAM treatments when they take patient histories. By so doing, they can guard against potentially harmful interactions between conventional practices and medicines and alternative ones; some herbal remedies, for instance, interfere with the way the body metabolizes therapeutic drugs. And whether they're being taught specific CAM practices or not, medical students are increasingly encouraged to respect patients' cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which may include CAM practices.
So which non-conventional treatments are medical schools most comfortable with? And which do they feel need more research to earn a med student's attention? Based on conversations with officials at four major medical schools -- Maryland, Johns Hopkins, UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania -- here's a report:
Acupuncture. The alternative therapy most widely embraced by medical schools is the ancient Chinese system for treating medical problems by stimulating key body points -- often by using very fine needles -- to manipulate "energy fields." Although there has been no scientific documentation about these fields or the precise mechanism by which acupuncture works, it has won recognition as a helpful treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee, as well as for nausea and fatigue in cancer patients.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
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