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The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs
BACKGROUND: There has been a marked increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in recent years worldwide. In Germany, apart from 'Heilpraktiker' (= state-licensed, non-medical CAM practitioners), some general practitioners (GPs) provide CAM in their practices. This...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2008
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442431/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18549476 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-8-127 |
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author | Joos, Stefanie Musselmann, Berthold Miksch, Antje Rosemann, Thomas Szecsenyi, Joachim |
author_facet | Joos, Stefanie Musselmann, Berthold Miksch, Antje Rosemann, Thomas Szecsenyi, Joachim |
author_sort | Joos, Stefanie |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: There has been a marked increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in recent years worldwide. In Germany, apart from 'Heilpraktiker' (= state-licensed, non-medical CAM practitioners), some general practitioners (GPs) provide CAM in their practices. This paper aims to explore the attitudes of GPs about the role of CAM in Germany, in relation to the healthcare system, quality of care, medical education and research. Furthermore, experiences of GPs integrating CAM in their daily practice were explored. METHODS: Using a qualitative methodological approach 3 focus groups with a convenience sample of 17 GPs were conducted. The discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The majority of the participating GPs had integrated one or more CAM therapies into their every-day practice. Four key themes were identified based on the topics covered in the focus groups: the role of CAM within the German healthcare system, quality of care, education and research. Within the theme 'role of CAM within the healthcare system' there were five categories: integration of CAM, CAM in the Statutory Health Insurance, modernisation of the Statutory Health Insurance Act, individual healthcare services and 'Heilpraktiker'. Regarding quality of care there were two broad groups of GPs: those who thought patients would benefit from standardizing CAM and those who feared that quality control would interfere with the individual approach of CAM. The main issues identified relating to research and education were the need for the development of alternative research strategies and the low quality of existing CAM education respectively. CONCLUSION: The majority of the participating GPs considered CAM as a reasonable complementary approach within primary care. The study increased our understanding of GPs attitudes about the role of CAM within the German healthcare system and the use of 'Heilpraktiker' as a competing CAM-provider. It seems to be a need for increased funding for research, better education and remuneration by the Statutory Health Insurance in order to improve access to 'Integrative medicine' in Germany. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2442431 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2008 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-24424312008-07-02 The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs Joos, Stefanie Musselmann, Berthold Miksch, Antje Rosemann, Thomas Szecsenyi, Joachim BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: There has been a marked increase in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in recent years worldwide. In Germany, apart from 'Heilpraktiker' (= state-licensed, non-medical CAM practitioners), some general practitioners (GPs) provide CAM in their practices. This paper aims to explore the attitudes of GPs about the role of CAM in Germany, in relation to the healthcare system, quality of care, medical education and research. Furthermore, experiences of GPs integrating CAM in their daily practice were explored. METHODS: Using a qualitative methodological approach 3 focus groups with a convenience sample of 17 GPs were conducted. The discussions were transcribed verbatim and analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The majority of the participating GPs had integrated one or more CAM therapies into their every-day practice. Four key themes were identified based on the topics covered in the focus groups: the role of CAM within the German healthcare system, quality of care, education and research. Within the theme 'role of CAM within the healthcare system' there were five categories: integration of CAM, CAM in the Statutory Health Insurance, modernisation of the Statutory Health Insurance Act, individual healthcare services and 'Heilpraktiker'. Regarding quality of care there were two broad groups of GPs: those who thought patients would benefit from standardizing CAM and those who feared that quality control would interfere with the individual approach of CAM. The main issues identified relating to research and education were the need for the development of alternative research strategies and the low quality of existing CAM education respectively. CONCLUSION: The majority of the participating GPs considered CAM as a reasonable complementary approach within primary care. The study increased our understanding of GPs attitudes about the role of CAM within the German healthcare system and the use of 'Heilpraktiker' as a competing CAM-provider. It seems to be a need for increased funding for research, better education and remuneration by the Statutory Health Insurance in order to improve access to 'Integrative medicine' in Germany. BioMed Central 2008-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC2442431/ /pubmed/18549476 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-8-127 Text en Copyright © 2008 Joos et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Joos, Stefanie Musselmann, Berthold Miksch, Antje Rosemann, Thomas Szecsenyi, Joachim The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title | The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title_full | The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title_fullStr | The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title_full_unstemmed | The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title_short | The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany – A focus group study of GPs |
title_sort | role of complementary and alternative medicine (cam) in germany – a focus group study of gps |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442431/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18549476 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-8-127 |
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