Integrating East Asian Medicine into Contemporary Healthcare
edited by Volker Scheid and Hugh MacPherson.
Traditional East Asian healthcare systems have moved rapidly from the fringes of healthcare systems in the West towards the centre over the past 50 years.
This change of status for traditional medicines presents their practitioners with both opportunities and challenges as the focus shifts from one of opposition towards one of integration into biomedically dominated healthcare systems.
The book examines the opportunities and challenges of integrating East Asian medicine into Western healthcare systems from an interdisciplinary perspective. Volker Scheid and Hugh MacPherson bring together contributions from acknowledged experts from a number of different disciplines - including clinical researchers, Chinese Medicine practitioners, historians, medical anthropologists, experts in the social studies of science, technology and medicine - to examine and debate the impact of the evidence-based medicine movement on the ongoing modernization of East Asian medicines.
The book considers the following questions:
From the Foreword by Ted J. Kaptchuk, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA:
This change of status for traditional medicines presents their practitioners with both opportunities and challenges as the focus shifts from one of opposition towards one of integration into biomedically dominated healthcare systems.
The book examines the opportunities and challenges of integrating East Asian medicine into Western healthcare systems from an interdisciplinary perspective. Volker Scheid and Hugh MacPherson bring together contributions from acknowledged experts from a number of different disciplines - including clinical researchers, Chinese Medicine practitioners, historians, medical anthropologists, experts in the social studies of science, technology and medicine - to examine and debate the impact of the evidence-based medicine movement on the ongoing modernization of East Asian medicines.
The book considers the following questions:
- What are the values, goals and ethics implicit within traditional East Asian medical practices?
- What claims to effectiveness and safety are made by East Asian medical practices?
- What is at stake in subjecting these medical practices to biomedical models of evaluation?
- What constitutes best practice? How is it to be defined and measured?
- What are the ideologies and politics behind the process of integration of East Asian medical practices into modern health care systems?
- What can we learn from a variety of models of integration into contemporary healthcare?
From the Foreword by Ted J. Kaptchuk, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA:
‘…My sense is that the goal of the volume is to promote discussion and open new space for readers to ponder important, deep and complex issues. The volume asks critical questions that are necessary for deliberate and careful integration of the East into the West. The volume assumes that medical facts, medical practice, knowledge of "what works" and theories of healing are embedded in complex cultural and social discourse. Instead of simple answers, it brings the reader into the heart of conundrums. This honest openness is a positive omen demonstrating that scholars and practitioners of East Asian medicine are ready to work together and grapple with hard questions. Besides being a good sign for the West, this volume has a promise for the East. For the first time in East Asian medical history, it will be possible to compare Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese variants and interpretations in the context of critical input from western scholars and practitioners. Such a dialogue will not eliminate complexity and uncertainty, but will undoubtedly make for a revitalized and genuinely cosmopolitan version of East Asian medicine. The scholars and practitioners in this volume are brave pioneers in the current East-West and North-South encounters that hold the promise to transform East Asian medicine from a regional medicine to a world medicine. The integration of East and West depends on the kind of honesty and creativity that is displayed in this volume.’
Review in Acupuncture in Medicine, Aug 2012:
"This book, in essence, seems to be a collection of eloquently written essays by a variety of authors who have all been involved in the ongoing effort to integrate East Asian Medicine into more mainstream practice. The chapters are frequently well written and fascinating in their content."
Editors: This book was edited by Professor Volker Scheid, University of Westminster, London, UK and Dr Hugh MacPherson, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK.
This book is available direct from the publisher, click here.
This book is available direct from the publisher, click here.
