The National Academy of Medicine calls for a framework for complementary and alternative therapies that complement the conventional care offer.
- The Academy of Medicine recalls that a complementary therapy is not complementary medicine and does not benefit from the same scientific support.
- It asks the public authorities to act to supervise these practices and not to allow excesses to accumulate.
- She also wants these therapies to be taught in the faculties.
We must encourage the development of complementary therapies and control therapeutic drifts. The Academy of Medicine called on June 7, in a statement, the last to better frame the complementary and alternative therapies that complement the conventional care offer. These “respond to patient expectations not met by the conventional care offer, which must be noted”, notes the Academy.
Be confirmed in the rules of medical ethics
The problem, regrets the Academy, and that these therapies are too little framed and that the risk of potential abuses is thus growing. The first losers are “patients, in particular due to diagnostic delays or failure to obtain essential medical care”, she laments. Although other actors, such as academics or associations, work to develop this field, they cannot constitute themselves as an agency. “Promoting the development of beneficial practices outside of conventional medicine requires protecting citizens from all abuses”, she insists.
In its press release, the Academy of Medicine recalls “only one complementary therapy is not complementary medicine”. This means that it does not have the scientific support that medicine does. “Medicine is taught in the Faculties of Medicine, the medical corpus based on scientific data (pathophysiology of diseases, mechanism of action of treatments, effectiveness supported by statistical studies)”, she writes. Thus, if any form of complementary therapy is to be deployed, it must comply with the rules of medical ethics.
Teaching Complementary Therapies in Universities
For the Academy, it is now up to the public authorities to act to regulate these practices and not let excesses accumulate. “This framework must be accompanied by a substantial effort of scientific work aimed at evaluating these practices in accordance with the rules of the art, as well as a homogenization and credibility of the training offer in this field.”, she continues.
Finally, the latter argues for incorporating complementary therapies in universities. This will then allow healthcare professionals to “advise patients transparently and objectively”, she concludes.
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