Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professional practice and safety: a consensus building workshop

Robinson, N., Lorenc, A. and Lewith, G. (2011) Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professional practice and safety: a consensus building workshop. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 3 (2), e49-e53. (doi:10.1016/j.eujim.2011.05.011).

Abstract

The use and practice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) may have potential safety issues. These may relate to practitioner competence, product quality, interactions with medication and non-compliance with conventional medicine. Safety is central to all healthcare practitioners and is an area where CAM groups should work together to achieve consensus.

With many CAM professions in the UK moving towards regulation, the Research Council for Complementary Medicine (RCCM) recognised the need for consensus between professions on the best way forward for collecting and using safety data. A 3 hour consensus workshop of UK CAM professional body representatives was convened. Results highlighted the importance of, and challenges inherent in, collecting CAM safety data. The definition of safety was discussed, in particular variation in adverse effects between therapies and recognition of both practitioner and product safety issues. A range of methods of collecting safety data were suggested, with triangulation of many approaches felt to be most useful. The main problem in recording adverse event data within practice was identified as the barrier of distrust. However, three examples of safety data collection projects were cited, which were all well received by practitioners, suggesting that developing such a scheme across CAM professions is a valuable endeavour. It is important to demonstrate the benefits or ‘rewards’ of collecting such data to practitioners, rather than ‘punish’ non-collection.

We suggest that new schemes are piloted with a small, local groups of practitioners, and supported by their professional organisations. Feedback from the professional bodies represented at the workshop was very positive and suggests that in the UK they are keen to move forward with the safety agenda. We would welcome comments from other countries on the safe practice of CAM.

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