Traditional Medicine Philosophy and Alternative Medicine

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Hi,

Good questions! Let's take a closer look,

1) Why is there a conflict between traditional medicine philosophy and alternative/complementary medicine?

Conflict occurs because the two philosophies are based on different theoretical premises and assumptions about health, wellness and sickness. This leads to different treatments. Alternative medicine is more focused on wellness abd prevention and natural cures. In contrast, traditional medicine focuses on sickness with surgery and medicine as the main cures. The conflict comes from the different philosophies and from the dominance of traditional medicine -- it is a type of 'turf' war as seen in the following definition:

In 2002, the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) Section staff of the National Library of Medicine classifies alternative medicine under the term complementary therapies. This is defined as therapeutic practices which are not currently considered an integral part of conventional allopathic medical practice. They may lack biomedical explanations but as they become better researched some, such as physical therapy, diet, and acupuncture, become widely accepted whereas others, such as humors or radium therapy, quietly fade away, yet are important historical footnotes. Therapies are termed as Complementary when used in addition to conventional treatments and as Alternative when used instead of conventional treatment. http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/altm.html

Notice how this definition is based on the science of medicine from the traditional view, focusing on the need for empirical proof, mostly researching on drug and surgical focus. Physicians will have fewer patients, for example, if exercise and physical therapy become the main cure as opposed to going to the doctor and taking pain medication prescribed by the doctor. Also, traditional medicine philosophy is scientific based and if it is not proven, it holds no weight in terms of reliability and validity.

To be fair, though, both groups have strong convictions based on different philosophies about health and illness, and the cures that are most effectiveness. Perhaps taken together, they are more holistic.

2) What are some of the more important characteristics that a health care organization must strive for which will amount to strategies for success in the future health care marketplace? Please provide references.

Human resource characteristics, quality, employee satisfaction, rich work environments, social support and coaching, embracing diversity and ethical principles are important characteristics. For example:

(a) It starts with trust--building organizational effectiveness in health care organizations. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10134456?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

(b) High ethical standards. All professionals subscribe to certain values and have concerns about their freedom and autonomy. When professionals work in large and complex organizations such as hospitals, differences in the values of various groups are reflected in disagreement. Tony Kennerley argues that the manager's task is to create harmony out of such dissonance. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10119206?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

(c) Health-care organizations are just beginning to recognize the importance of developing a manager's emotional quotient, or interpersonal skills. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11822267?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

(d) Reaping benefits from intellectual capital. Carrington (2007) found yhat the wealth and value of organizations are increasingly based on intellectual capital. Although acquiring talented individuals and investing in employee learning adds value to the organization, reaping the benefits of intellectual capital involves translating the wisdom of employees into reusable and sustained actions. This requires a culture that creates employee commitment, encourages learning, fosters sharing, and involves employees in decision making. An infrastructure to recognize and embed promising and best practices through social networks, evidence-based practice, customization of innovations, and use of information technology results in increased productivity, stronger financial performance, better patient outcomes, and greater employee and customer satisfaction. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17198112?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=5&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed

(e) Focus on employee satisfaction: code red in the workplace? Concerns about employee satisfaction are just as critical in the health care industry as they are in other business sectors. This article highlights the commonality of employee opinion survey questions (from 3 sources) that most highly correlate with employee satisfaction. A visual coaching tool for managers will be introduced that enables managers to facilitate constructive work group conversations about their experience of workplace satisfaction and generate ideas they can implement for improvement. ...