Perception, attitude, and demand for Korean medicine and Western medicine collaborative treatment of medical occupational groups in Korea: A scoping review

BACKGROUND: In Korea, there exists a dual medical license system whereby both traditional Korean medicine and Western medicine doctors practice independently. In 2009, via medical law revision, cross employment was allowed to activate Korean medicine and Western medicine collaborative treatment (KWCT). Despite its several advantages, there are several barriers to a well-organized KWCT. To activate KWCT, we investigated perception, attitude, demand of medical occupational groups and research gap via scoping review. METHODS: Scoping review is an emerging methodology for knowledge synthesis adopting the Arksey and O’Malley framework. The research question was “What is known about perception, attitude, demand, and research gap on KWCT?” We searched articles published from 2009 to 2019 in 7 Korean and 4 English databases. We conducted descriptive and qualitative thematic analysis and presented the research gap. RESULTS: From 1,305 articles, 6 quantitative and 3 qualitative studies were included. In quantitative studies, perception and attitude of medical occupational groups did not change markedly. For better perception and attitude, experiencing, mutual understanding, and respect should precede. Academic exchange, education, supporting KWCT research and legal/institutional/administrative support is also important. In qualitative studies, education course, guidelines, trust, safety, academic integration, and scientification were also required. We found several research gaps about KWCT especially detailed on-site demand and activation strategy about KWCT. CONCLUSION: We investigated perception, attitude, and demand on KWCT. Based on research gap in our scoping review, quantitative studies using validated questionnaire and in-depth interview are needed to identify on-site demand to improve KWCT implementation. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: https://www.researchregistry.com/(reviewregistry830)