P04.01
Purpose: The focus of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) or integrative medicine (IM) use has been mainly based on those who can afford to pay out-of-pocket to receive CAM health care such as acupuncture or naturopathy. But what about those who cannot afford health care, health insurance, or CAM/IM care? The purpose of this research is to find the level of interest in CAM or IM from those who provide health care services for the underserved at community clinics across California.
Methods: For this research project we used an exploratory mixed method of research a quantitative survey and review of literature on CAM and IM for the past 25 plus years. A quantitative web-based survey (Survey Monkey) was emailed to the 15 Community Clinic Consortiums CEO's within the state of California. The purpose of this survey was to (1) find if any CAM practitioners were currently working in their clinics; (2) what they considered “integrative medicine”; and (3) if there was interest in providing CAM or integrative medicine within their clinics. Of the 15 surveys sent, 7 were completed for a 48% rate of return.
Results: The size of the survey sample is small and focused on administrators of the 15 California community clinic consortiums; however for this particular research project the idea was to determine interest from those who oversee community clinics and assess their knowledge of integrative medicine and their desire to shift to an integrative medicine model which would be more inclusive of CAM modalities.
Conclusion: Thus this study shows knowledge and interest by these CEO's about CAM and IM, which could lead to further development of an integrative medicine model to benefit the underserved.
Contact: Rosanna Horton, rofromsf@gmail.com
