The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy: Guiding Principles

 

Another difficult challenge that faced the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy was establishing a shared philosophical foundation from which to formulate our recommendations. After a fascinating day-long discussion, we settled on 10 guiding principles:

1.     A wholeness orientation in health care delivery. Health involves all aspects of life - mind, body, spirit, environment - and high-quality health care must support care of the whole person.

2.     Evidence of safety and efficacy. The Commission is committed to promoting the use of science and appropriate scientific methods to help identify safe and effective CAM services and products and to generate the evidence that will protect and promote the public health.

3.     The healing capacity of the person. The person has a remarkable capacity for recovery and self-healing, and a major focus of health care is to support and promote this capacity.

4.     Respect for individuality. Every person is unique and has the right to health care that is appropriately responsive to him or her, respecting preferences and preserving dignity.

5.     The right to choose treatment. Every person has the right to choose freely among safe and effective care or approaches, as well as among qualified practitioners who are accountable for their claims and actions and responsive to the person's needs.

6.     An emphasis on health promotion and self-care. Good health care emphasizes self-care and early intervention for maintaining and promoting health.

7.     Partnerships as essential for integrated health care. Good health care requires teamwork among patients, health care practitioners (conventional and CAM), and researchers committed to creating optimal healing environments and to respecting the diversity of all health care traditions.

8.     Education as a fundamental health care service. Education about prevention, healthful lifestyles, and the power of self-healing should be made an integral part of the curricula of all health care professionals and should be made available to the public at all ages.

9.     Dissemination of comprehensive and timely information. The quality of health care can be enhanced by promoting efforts that thoroughly and thoughtfully examine the evidence on which CAM systems, practices, and products are based and make this evidence widely, rapidly, and easily available.

10.  Integral public involvement. The input of informed consumers must be incorporated in setting priorities for health care, health care research, and in reaching policy decisions, including those related to CAM, within the public and private sectors.