ntegrative Healthcare Strategies: Exploring Culture and Practice in Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Integrative medicine, a holistic approach to healing that incorporates the practice of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (T/CAM), is increasingly accepted within conventional systems of medical treatment throughout the developed world. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East T/CAM is the accepted medical standard used by the vast majority of the population. In the United States, nearly half of adults opt for integrative medical treatments which represents a collaborative opportunity to enhance the strategies that conventional medicine has taken for more than a century.
This conference seeks to create a new discourse on the practice, history, and culture of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine by bringing together Integrative medical specialists and scholars of traditional medical systems such as historians, anthropologists, and sociologists. We invite proposals for individual papers, complete panels, and poster presentations that examine the clinical application and/or history, sociology, anthropology, or culture of T/CAM fields such as (but not limited to) acupuncture, acupressure, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, homeopathy, naturopathy, and Tai Chi.
Proposals for session presenters (individual or group) should include: 1) title; 2) abstract of up to 250 words, and; 3) a 150 word bio. Complete panel proposals should include an abstract and bio for each paper, as well as a panel abstract. Poster session proposals should include: 1) title; 2) abstract of up to 250 words; 3) 150 word bio, and; 4) statement of objectives. All proposals from healthcare practitioners must include a statement of objectives. All sessions are 60-minutes in length.
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
- Acupuncture and treating pain
- Anthropology of healing
- Aroma therapy
- Ayurveda: its history and practice
- Better health through Yoga and Ayurveda
- Chinese herbal medicine and sports injuries
- Chinese, Japanese, or Korean medical history
- Contemporary study and practice of traditional medicine
- Energy therapies
- Globalization of Asian medicine
- Herbal medicines and supplements in American society
- Institutionalization of T/CAM in the global society
- Mindful meditation
- New approaches to traditional medicine
- T/CAM and clinical application of traditional medicine for cancer treatment
- Tai Chi and healthy aging
- Traditional medicine and chemotherapy
- Transformation of traditional medicine into a Western medical context
- Treating neurological disorders with T/CAM
- Western academic studies of traditional medical systems