Blunting Occam’s razor, or when less is not best: pluralism in the global health care marketplace
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19137/qs.v24i3.4837Keywords:
traditional medicine, conventional medicine, integration, knowledge organizationAbstract
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate -“plurality should not be posed without necessity”- states the famous dictum. In a curious case of metabasis, it seems to apply nowhere best than in contemporary health care: the approach that unfolded as an offshoot of modern science in the West became so pervasive that is now globally known as ‘conventional’ medicine. This seems to be also the perception of scholars -historians, social medicine experts, among many others- who have stressed the global spread of Western medicine, while allowing for some footnotes on the ‘arrival’ of other approaches, which nonetheless remain ‘alternative’ or, in the best of cases, ‘complementary’ to mainstream health care. Integration of cultural traditions, however, is increasingly gaining territory and visibility. One striking example is provided by endeavors to make the various health care traditions communicate, no longer within a relationship of subordination, but as equally contributing to the general goals of promoting, maintaining and helping recover physical, mental and social health. In this paper I address the effort to create a common conceptual and methodological frame within the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to develop a classification to enable the involved actors understand global and local trends. My particular focus is on the recent (May 2019) inclusion of Traditional Medicine conditions in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 11th revision–ICD-11, effective starting 1 January 2022.Downloads
References
Alfonso-Goldfarb, A.M., Waisse, S. & Ferraz, M. H. (2013). From shelves to cyberspace. Organization of knowledge and the complex identity of history of science. Isis, 104 (3), 551–560. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/673274
Baer, H. A. (2004). Medical pluralism. In Ember, C. & Ember, M. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of medical anthropology. Health and illness in the world’s cultures. Vol. 1, Topics (pp. 109–116). New York, USA: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
Bivins, Roberta. (2007). Alternative medicine? A history. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Bornhöft, G. & Matthiessen, P. F. (Ed.). (2011). Homeopathy in healthcare. Effectiveness, appropriateness, safety, costs. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Cant, S. & Sharma, U. (1999).A new medical pluralism? Alternative medicine, doctors, patients and the state. London, England: Routledge.
Choi, S.-H., Watanabe, K., Shim, B., Zhu, H. & Roberts, R. (2006). International Classification of Traditional Medicine: ICTM. Proposal to WHO-FIC Family Development Committee for inclusion of ICTM in the World Organization Family of International Classifications. Meeting of the Collaborating Centres for the Family of International Classifications. Document C408. Available at: https://www.who.int/classifications/network/meetings/en/.
Cueto, M, Brown T.M. & Fee, E. (2019). The World Health Organization. A history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cueto, M. (2004). The ORIGINS of primary health care and SELECTIVE primary health care. American Journal of Public Health, 93 (11), 1864-1874. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.94.11.1864
Dinges, M. (2013). Medical pluralism—past and present. Towards a more precise concept. In Jütte, R. (Ed.). Medical pluralism. Past—present—future (pp. 195–205). Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner.
Dinges, M. (2014). Introduction. In Dinges, M. (Ed.). Medical pluralism and homoeopathy in India and Germany (1810–2010). A comparison of practices (pp. 7–30). Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner.
Djulbegovic, B. & Guyatt, G. H. (2017). Progress in evidence-based medicine: a quarter century on. The Lancet, 390, 415–423.
Ernst, W. (2013). Medical plurality, medical pluralism and plural medicine. A critical reappraisal of recent scholarship. In Jütte, R. (Ed.). Medical pluralism. Past—present—future (pp. 11–23). Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner.
Fontanarosa, P. B. & Lundberg, G. D. (1998). Alternative medicine meets science. JAMA, 280 (18), 1618–1619. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.280.18.1618
Foran, B. J. (2007). Medical pluralism and global health policy. The integration of traditional medicine in health care systems. PhD dissertation. PhD in Social Policy. University of Western Sidney, Australia. Available at: https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:3623
Gross, M. (2018). Between party, people and profession. The many faces of the ‘doctor’ during the Cultural Revolution. Medical History, 62 (3), 333-356. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2018.23
Hsu, Elisabeth. (2008). Medical pluralism. In Heggenhougen, K. & Quah, S.R. (Ed.). International encyclopedia of public health (pp. 316–319). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier.
Institute of Medicine (United States). Committee on the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public. (2005). Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States. Washington D. C.: National Academies Press. Available at: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK83799
Jinfgu, T. (1985). Traditional Chinese Medicine. Past, present and future. In Akerelle, O., Stott, G. & Weibo, L. (Ed.). The role of traditional medicine in primary health care in China (pp. 11–18). Geneva, Switzerland: WHO/Ministry of Public Health of the People’s Republic of China. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/60624
Jütte, R. (Ed.). (2013). Medical pluralism. Past—present—future. Stuttgart, Germany: Franz Steiner.
Jütte, R. (2017). Medical pluralism: what can we learn from history?, Inaugural lecture at the Homeopathic World Congress, Leipzig. Available at: http://www.igm-bosch.de/content/language1/downloads/MedicalPluralism.pdf.
Kaptchuk, T. J. & Eisenberg, D. M. (2001) Varieties of healing 1. Medical pluralism in the United States. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2001, 135(3), 189–195.
Klayman, D. L. (1985). Qinghaosu (artemisinin). An antimalarial drug from China. Science, 228, 1045–1055.
Leslie, C. (1980). Medical pluralism in world perspective [1]. Social Science & Medicine, 14B, 1919–195.
Madden, R., Sykes, C. & Ustun, T. B. (2007). World Health Organization Family of International Classifications. Definition, scope and purpose. Available at: https://www.who.int/classifications/en/FamilyDocument2007.pdf
Métailié, G. (Ed.). (2015). Science and civilization in China, Vol. VI, Part 4. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Métailié, G. (2019). How traditional Chinese materia medica entered modern medicine, 1956–1977. In Alfonso-Goldfarb, A. M., Ferraz, M. H., Goldfarb, J. L. & Waisse, S. (Ed.). História da ciência na PUC-SP. Uma viagem de 20 anos (pp. 76-82). São Paulo, Brazil: Editora da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo.
Miller, L.H. & Su, X. (2011). Artemisinin: a discovery from the Chinese herbal garden. Cell, 146 (6), 855–858. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.024
Morris, W, Gomes, S. & Allen, M. (2012). International Classification of Traditional Medicine. Global Advances in Health and Medicine 1 (4), 38-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7453/gahmj.2012.1.4.005
Penkala-Gawęcka, D. & Rajtar, M. (2016). Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Medical Pluralism and Beyond.’ Anthropology & Medicine, 23 (2), 129–134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2016.1180584
Shi, C.-C., Su, Y.-C., Liao, C.-C. & Lin, J.-C. (2010). Patterns of medical pluralism among adults. Results from the 2001 National Health Interview Survey in Taiwan. BMC Health Services Research, 10, article number: 191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-191
Sivin, N. (Ed.). (2001). Science and civilisation in China, Vol. VI, Part 6. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Souza, E. P. (2010). Ciências de interface: problemas, desafios e estudo de caso. PhD dissertation. PhD in History of Science. Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. Available at: https://tede2.pucsp.br/bitstream/handle/13239/1/Elaine%20Pereira%20de%20Souza.pdf
Tong, X. (1985). Combining Traditional Chinese Medicine and modern medicine. In Akerelle, O., Stott, G. & Weibo, L. (Ed.). The role of traditional medicine in primary health care in China (pp. 11–18). Geneva, Switzerland: WHO/Ministry of Public Health of the People’s Republic of China. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/60624
Tu, Y. (2011). The discovery of artemisinin (qinghaosu) and gifts from Chinese medicine. Nature Medicine, 17 (10), 1217–1220. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2471
World Health Assembly (WHA) 20. (1967). WHO Nomenclature Regulations 1967. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/89478
World Health Organization (WHO). (1977). The promotion and development of traditional medicine. Meeting report. Geneva: WHO. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/40995
World Health Organization (WHO). (1990). A standard international acupuncture nomenclature: memorandum from a WHO meeting. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 68 (2): 165–169. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/50680
World Health Organization (WHO). (2002). WHO Traditional medicine strategy 2002–2005. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/67163/WHO_EDM_TRM_2002.1.pdf?sequence=1
World Health Organization (WHO). (2013). WHO Traditional medicine strategy 2014–2023. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO. Available at: who.int/medicines/publications/traditional/trm_strategy14_23/en/
World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO. Available at: https://www.who.int/traditional-complementary-integrative-medicine/WhoGlobalReportOnTraditionalAndComplementaryMedicine2019.pdf?ua=1
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
When submitting their contributions, authors must declare that they have the permission of the file or repository where the documents that are attached to the work were obtained, whatever their format (unpublished manuscripts, images, audiovisual files, etc.). Such permission authorizes their publication and reproduction, releasing the journal and its editors from any liability or claim from third parties.
Likewise, authors must adhere to the Creative Commons license called "Attribution - Non-Commercial CC BY-NC-SA", through which the author allows copying, reproducing, distributing, publicly communicating the work and generating derivative works, as long as the original author is properly quoted and acknowledged. It is not allowed, however, to use the work for commercial purposes. Authors may establish additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in the journal (for example, placing it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book), with the acknowledgment of having been published first in this journal.
The publication of content in this journal does not imply any royalty or charge for taxpayers.
Quinto Sol adheres to the DORA (Declaration on Research Assessment) signed in San Francisco, California, on December 16, 2012, and to the Declaration of Mexico (Joint Declaration LATINDEX - REDALYC - CLACSO - IBICT).
4.png){kind=logo}
2.png)
_(2).png)
1.jpg)
1.jpg)
