"While going to university, [medical doctors] are somehow taught to close their minds."

So said Vancouver talkshow host Croft Woodruff in a recent interview. He reiterated a common patient complaint that many doctors are not open-minded to complementary and alternative medicine, otherwise known as CAM. But times are changing. Patient demand for alternative medicine is on the rise.

A 1997 Angus Reid poll noted that 42 percent of Canadians surveyed have used alternative medicine, and close to half of them began taking vitamin therapy and seeking naturopathic advice within the previous five years. These figures are up from a 1993 survey published by the New England Journal of Medicine, which revealed that 34 percent of American respondents had tried CAM, totaling an estimated 425 million visits to alternative medical practitioners.

Luckily, a new batch of physicians is on the horizon, helped along by a growth in alternative medicine courses offered by North American universities. In 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the results of a study that examined CAM courses in US medical schools. Of the 125 schools polled, 30 per cent have information on CAM incorporated into required courses, while 67 per cent offer this information in stand-alone electives. This year, the Canadian Medical Association Journal revealed that 13 out of 16 Canadian medical schools include some form of CAM in their curricula.

Acupuncture was the most popular modality (in 10 schools), followed by homeopathic medicine (nine schools), and herbal medicine (eight schools). Alternative medicine is a required component of courses in nine schools, while the three schools not yet teaching alternative medicine as part of their curricula have plans to do so shortly.

Students For Change

Michelle Hancock is working on her master’s in journalism at the University of British Columbia.

Source: alive #207, January 2000