[Complementary medicine and scientific pluralism--from governmental research funding to the dialogue forum of pluralism in medicine]

Abstract

Medicine is based on a pluralism of different ways of thinking and practical approaches. Given this assumption, the history and experiences of the 2 German governmental research funding programs 'Unconventional Methods of Cancer' (UMK) and 'Unconventional Medicine Directions' (UMR) are described from the perspective of the project supporter of 2 working groups that were based at the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany, on behalf of the federal government. The results of a nationwide inventory analysis conducted under my direction in the years 1989–1992 showed a distinct lack of human and infrastructural resources for competitive research for complementary medicine at that time. The field of complementary medicine was found to be very heterogeneous and was divided into procedures without any visible research interest, but also contained approaches nourishing mainstream medicine by its different paradigm. The representatives of complementary medicine were and still are recognizably interested in evaluative, empirical research. The following contains our funding recommendations made for the relevant ministries, the advertised funding issues, and the research activities carried out. Although this governmental research funding was limited, a signal function can be awarded, retrospectively. For the subsequent period, there has been a significant improvement in infrastructural, staff, and research conditions. This development led to a significant increase in the level of quality and the acceptability of research results. As a result of an increased willingness for cooperations, the foundations, concerns, and activities of the 'dialogue forum pluralism in medicine' set up in 2000 are presented and compared with the situation at the time of research funding by government. 'Integrative Medicine' is currently being favored and welcomed as a sign of better mutual acceptance. Nevertheless, complementary medicine is still seen as being creative, enriching medical and health care, improving the patient-centeredness, and thus as an educational (unrest) element (of agitation).