Middle Medicine

Doctors Wanted

According to Eisenberg et al, [1] total visits to alternative healthcare practitioners exceeded total visits to primary care physicians in the US back in the 1990s.
If we can leave our notions of healthcare aside and look at the available evidence, it would likely become apparent that there already exists a “shadow system” of healthcare – effective, safe, and able to provide some of the very medicine we need.
More and more professionals are calling for interprofessional collaboration, including “emerging” healthcare systems like Chinese Medicine. [2] In the 21st century it won’t be possible to maintain the rigid hierarchical structure as it exists today.

1. Trends in Alternative Medicine Use in the United States, 1990-1997
David M. Eisenberg, MD; Roger B. Davis, ScD; Susan L. Ettner, PhD; Scott Appel, MS; Sonja Wilkey; Maria Van Rompay; Ronald C. Kessler, PhD
JAMA. 1998;280:1569-1575.

2. The Case for Interprofessional Collaboration
Geoffrey Meads; John Ashcroft; Hugh Barr; Rosalind Scott; Andrea Wild
Blackwell Publishing. 2005