Referring to complementary and alternative medicine-A possible tool for implementation

Background: Patients' extensive use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can affect doctor-patient communication. Substantial, numbers of patients expect their primary care physician to be able to refer them to CAM practitioners. However, a simple and practical referral CAM process is lacking. Research design and methods: We developed an 11-item questionnaire that addresses issues a physician should consider in determining whether to refer a patient for CAM treatment, including biopsychosocial. and communication concerns and the safety and effectiveness of modalities. The toot was administered via questionnaires posted and e-mailed to primary care physicians and CAM practitioners. Results: Our CAM referral toot was found to be considerably useful in a primary care setting. High reliability and validity of the toot were found among the primary care physicians (Cronbach's alpha score of 0.867, spearman rho correlation 0.2-0.67) and moderate reliability among CAM practitioners (0.745). Conclusions: We hope that our CAM referral toot wit[ help advance the integration of CAM and conventional medicine. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.