Background

Integrative medicine is a concept in which health professionals integrate state-of-the-art methods with so-called complementary methods. The goal of the integration is to achieve a highly effective medical system in which the evidence for a treatment is not solely depending on a hierarchical evaluation system but on the total of all existing evidence for the efficacy and clinical effectiveness of a treatment.

In Sweden science and approved experience (vetenskap och beprövad erfarenhet) are the guiding rules for all health care. But there are several difficult questions: Which is the framework for experience? Whom experience is addressed? What is good science? The question on which methods are approved and which methods are complementary is often answered from representatives for the valid norm.

The discussion on whether a method is approved or not is often more focused on the question on whether there is high or low evidence for the method and less on whether the methods used in the studies were appropriate for the questions to be answered. Good science is often equalled with a high evidence level in the prevailing hierarchical system. This creates a situation in which we focus on proving the efficacy of methods with randomised clinical trials instead of also contributing to developing adequate and complementary methods for evaluation. There is a need for also developing scientifically based tools for the individual medical professional to evaluate his or her treatments in the individual case.

The task for integrative medicine has been increasing during the recent years and there is a need for a discussion on how conventional and complementary methods can be integrated. The discussion has to be based on an interest for each others questions and answers.

The proposed conference and workshop is intended to be a meeting-place where such a discussion is possible.