As conventional medical providers become more aware of the popularity of complementary and alternative medicine, they are more open to integrating such practices into the services they offer.

Many practitioners of alternative and complementary medicine respond positively to this interest. An integrated practice of complementary and alternative and conventional medicine promises to increase the availability of their techniques, expand their client bases, and, if covered by insurance, benefit patients who now must pay for treatments out of pocket.

Optimists view integration as offering patients the best of both worlds. But is this true? Does this movement offer the best of both worlds, or does it represent an exploitation of one by the other? Do patients benefit from integrated delivery, or are the values and treatment modalities in conventional and alternative medicine so radically different that they cannot be integrated without compromise? What are the practical problems of integration, and how can they be overcome?

To answer these questions, Park Ridge Center will convene a day-long workshop on May 14. Center staff members and experts within the fields of both conventional and complementary and alternative medicine will explore the practical and ethical dimensions of the movement toward integration. The workshop will be divided into three thematic working sessions:

Session One: The Integrated Practice
The first session will explore the general terrain of integrated practice. Participants will examine the parameters of different types of integrated practice and consider some of the difficulties posed by such linking. These include accreditation of non-traditional practitioners, determining the mix of services to be offered, communication and referrals between practitioners of different treatment modalities, and risk management and quality assurance issues.

Session Two: Risks and Rewards for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
In session two, participants will consider the risks and rewards of integration for complementary and alternative medicine, including potential threats to complementary and alternative modes of treatment when they are integrated into conventional medical practices. One reward of integration might be a greater credibility for alternative therapies within the health care arena; a threat is the possibility that insurance and conventional medical management practices fundamentally will alter complementary and alternative medicine's traditional approach to patient care.

Session Three: Risks and Rewards for Conventional Medicine
Finally, session three will explore the risks and rewards integration offers to conventional medicine, including the possibility that incorporating alternative treatment modalities represents a diminution in the scientific practice of medicine. On the other hand, integration may provide an opportunity to develop new methods for efficacy assessment. The model of patient-centered care common to much of complementary and alternative medicine may affect conventional medicine, offering opportunities for a conventional practitioner to incorporate his or her own spiritual traditions into the practice of medicine.

A report of the day's proceedings will be published this summer.