• Alvaro Tala and Cecilia Plaza.
• Unidad de Educación en Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 2023 Aug 1; 151 (8): 107110771071-1077.

AbstractThe World Health Organization has defined health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not just the absence of disease. Integrative medicine considers the articulation of different medical practices and systems such as mind-body therapies, manual therapies, energy medicine, whole systems and healthy lifestyles, allowing focusing on the cause of diseases and giving concrete tools to focus on the person rather than just the disease. In Chile, the Ministry of Health proposed incorporating alternative and complementary medicines through Decree 42, regulating them as auxiliary to traditional care, the conditions of practice for the exercise of acupuncture, homeopathy, and naturopathy. There are multiple barriers to implementing integrative medicine units, such as the perception that they are expensive and ineffective and, frequently, the resistance of health teams. For its advancement, it is essential to gradually incorporate this discipline in health careers curricula, agree on taxonomies and outcomes, and maintain sight that the core of health care is at the primary level. It is also necessary to generate evidence on the use of integrative medicine, especially at the local level, incorporating its practice more routinely and reporting on its potential adverse effects.

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