The effectiveness of integrative healthcare for chronic disease: A systematic review.

Background: The past few decades have witnessed a surge in consumer, clinician and academic interest in the field of integrative healthcare (IHC). Yet, there is still uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of IHC for complex, long-term health conditions.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of IHC for the management of any chronic health condition.

Health consumer and health provider preferences for an integrative healthcare service delivery model: A national cross-sectional study.

Background: Although global interest in integrative healthcare (IHC) has escalated over the past few decades, stakeholder perspectives and preferences in relation to IHC remain poorly understood. Our study aimed to address this knowledge gap by exploring Australian health consumer (HC) and healthcare provider (HCP) understanding, attitudes and preferences for an IHC service delivery model, and to translate these views into an operational framework for IHC.

Method: The research used a cross-sectional study design.

Integrative health care - Toward a common understanding: A mixed method study.

Objective: To generate a multidisciplinary stakeholder-informed definition of integrative health care (IHC).

Methods: A mixed-method study design was used, employing the use of focus groups/semi-structured interviews (phase-1) and document analysis (phases 2 and 3). Phase-1 recruited a purposive sample of Australian health consumers/health providers.

Australia's systems of primary healthcare - the need for improved coordination and implications for Medicare Locals.

Background: In Australia, primary healthcare is largely delivered through two parallel systems: Medicare supported primary care delivered by fee-for-service general practitioners, and state funded and managed community health services.

Methods: Semistructured interviews with 18 GPs to investigate the current links between GPs and local primary healthcare providers.

Results: Barriers to links include: communication and information, access and availability of services, GP lack of awareness and understanding of services provided in the state funded sector, and lack of time to gain information.

'Becoming accepted': The complementary and alternative medicine practitioners' response to the uptake and practice of traditional medicine therapies by the mainstream health sector.

This Australian study sought to understand how practitioners of the traditional systems of what is now termed complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are responding to the adoption of their traditional medicine therapies by the mainstream health care system, and the practice of these therapies by mainstream health care practitioners. A grounded theory approach was used for this study. In-depth interviews were conducted with 19 participants who were non-mainstream practitioners from five traditional systems of medicine - Traditional Chinese Medicine,Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Homeopathy and Western Herbal Medicine.

Understanding the emerging relationship between complementary medicine and mainstream health care: a review of the literature.

The history of the relationship between complementary medicine (CM) and mainstream health care has shifted from the early days of pluralism, through hostility and exclusion, to one of grudging acceptance. The current situation is one of a tacit acknowledgement and in some cases open endorsement by biomedicine for a number of forms of CM practice, largely driven by the popularity of CM to consumers in our increasingly market driven health care system. How this relationship is ultimately worked out will impact both on the practice of CM and biomedicine, and on the health care choices available to consumers.