CAM in Switzerland - A story of success

Brigitte Ausfeld-Hafter, MD, Switzerland

 

Purpose

Since the nineties, the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Switzerland has markedly developed. Purpose of this review is to provide an overview about the past and the present status of CAM in Switzerland. Eventually, knowing the history is a good position to explore the future.

 

Methods

A historical overview of the CAM situation in Switzerland will be presented by highlighting important milestones at a political level, relevant characteristics of clinical CAM-practice and CAM-research, executed by the Institute of Complementary Medicine KIKOM.

 

Results

Since 1996 all medical acupuncture associations are connected in one head organization (Assoziation Schweizer Ärztegesellschaften für Akupunktur und Chinesische Medizin ASA; www.akupunktur-tcm.ch). This organization is in charge of TCM related education and certification of medical doctors. Currently, there are 778 doctors in Switzerland owning a certificate of competence in Traditional Chinese Medicine / Acupuncture.

 

The Institute of Complementary Medicine KIKOM at the University of Bern was founded in 1995 (www.kikom.unibe.ch). The chair was subdivided into the four most common complementary methods: 25% were assigned to TCM, Classical Homeopathy, Anthroposophic Medicine, and Neural Therapy respectively. Each discipline is provided with a part time (50%) scientific research resident. The responsibilities are medical education, research, and patient care. Since the foundation of KIKOM, university research in CAM has been established and fostered mainly by the support of third-party funds. The Institute actively contributes to medical education by providing mandatory and elective CAM courses for medical students.

 

Based on the popular initiative “Yes to complementary medicine” Swiss Federal Authorities decided on January 12th, 2011 to temporarily reintegrate the five medical CAM-branches (Chinese Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy, Anthroposophic Medicine, Neural Therapy and Western Phytotherapy) into the mandatory basic health insurance by January 1rst, 2012, until on to the end of 2017. During this period, CAM related research projects shall be enhanced by facilitating the access to national funding sources such as the Swiss National Science Foundation. In addition, financial support for the establishment of further CAM chairs in universities has been granted.

 

Conclusion

The people of Switzerland considerably contributed to the acceptance of CAM in the Swiss health care system, resulting in anchoring CAM in the Federal Constitution (article 118a) and in primary medical care, as well as in promoting CAM related medical education and research.