View full article | Building Evidence for Naturopathic Medicine Are We Chasing Fool’s Gold?
Abstract
In an effort to bridge the disparity between conventional and nonconventional healthcare practices, research evidence has been seen as a commonality that may provide a link between the different schools of thought. Considerable effort has been expended on the evidence based practice agenda and there is strong demand for nonconventional practices such as naturo- pathic medicine to produce research evidence in support of its therapeutic applications. Whilst few would disagree with basing patient care on information about what works, there remains significant challenges about what evidence is, and how practitioners use it in clinical practice. From the naturopathic perspective, a number of issues must be addressed in order to attain meaningful and applicable information. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature, meaning and role of evidence in naturopathic practice; and to consider some creative and integrative research designs and methods within the naturopathic context.
Brenda Leung, ND