Abstract

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business. Alongside the increased consumption of complementary medicine and the swelling numbers of complementary health practitioners has emerged a growing interest in these medicines and therapies from within the ranks of conventional primary health care. At the level of practice and beyond, a culture of confrontation and antagonism has begun to be replaced by a focus upon potential integration, collaboration and common ground.With these significant developments in mind, this ground-breaking book is a valuable and timely addition to the CIM and primary health care research literature. The collection outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM-primary health care interface and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and researching the contemporary relations between CIM and primary health care.The book is the first to be authored by leading international CIM-primary health care researchers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, general practice, clinical trials design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. All contributors are active CIM-primary health care researchers and their extensive research and practice experience helps lend a unique immediacy and richness to the contributions and collection.