- Title
- The increasing involvement of physicians in complementary and alternative medicine: considerations of professional regulation and patient safety
- Creator
- Ries, Nola M.; Fisher, Katherine J.
- Relation
- Queen's Law Journal Vol. 39, Issue 1, p. 273-299
- Publisher
- Queen's University, Faculty of Law
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Patients now often ask physicians to integrate complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments into conventional medical practice, creating a tension between respect for patient autonomy and the ideal of evidence-based medicine. Alternative practitioners have sought to capitalize on this growing patient demand by pushing for the right to self regulation, arguing that they are in the best position to develop policies with respect to their own services. Provincial and territorial legislatures and medical colleges have developed policies on the use of CAM by physicians, on physicians' referral of patients to CAM, and on physicians' acquiescence in the recourse to CAM by patients on their own initiative. Some jurisdictions continue to follow the long-standing pattern of having different regulatory regimes for specific professions, while others have moved to an umbrella statute covering all regulated health professions. Whatever the form of the existing policies, their thrust tends to be quite restrictive, as the medical community has been hesitant to allow physicians to provide or recommend treatments that have not been proven to be scientifically sound by traditional standards. However, some provinces and territories have adopted "negative proof" provisions that allow physicians to offer CAM treatments which pose no more risk than conventional practices. The authors conclude that existing regulatory models send contradictory messages, and should be revised to give physicians clearer guidelines on how to balance patient demand with concerns for patient safety. They point to the need for more research on the practical impact of regulation in this area, and on the impact of CAM in certain fields where patients are likely to be particularly vulnerable.
- Subject
- complementary medicine; alternative medicine; physicians; patient safety
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1356390
- Identifier
- uon:31693
- Identifier
- ISSN:0316-778X
- Language
- eng
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