This month London's King's Fund announced its plan to support researchers in the study of the ways in which orthodox, complementary, and traditional medicine can be used together in medical practice.

The Fund — an independent foundation that handles research, policy analysis, and development activities in the health sector in and around London — is offering researchers £150,000 to see if integrated care encourages people to take more responsibility for their own health and well-being and also to find out if complementary and traditional (i.e. spiritual and/or indigenous) practices can be more efficiently integrated into every day medicine.

Researchers will collaborate with doctors, complementary health care practitioners, and patients with an emphasis on acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, osteopathy, and herbal medicine.

The head of King’s Fund, Niall Dickson, says that the research reflects the growing interest in complementary health practices and the use of traditional medicine. “We want to examine how health care practitioners can work together with patients to integrate complementary therapies and more conventional approaches to health. In particular, we want to look at the effect this has on the future needs of patients and health services. And we want to ensure primary care practitioners are more aware of traditional approaches and can help patients to talk about them and use their community resources effectively to improve their health,” he said in a recent press release.

[via Medical News Today]