focus: Complementary and integrative medicine
SMSC LAUSANNE: INTEGRATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE Text: Ariane Pauli | University of Lausanne Let’s face it: medical studies in Switzerland are largely theory-based. We learn about all sorts of receptors, biological and disordered physiological mechanisms; and their clinical implementation, well especially in our first years of studies, is treated as a side topic. This is why events and congresses like the SMSC are important, to encourage and show students that there is more to our education than the regular university curriculum. And this October we finally had the opportunity to meet up in person again, to get to know and connect with students all around Switzerland and learn about an interesting medical topic. Integrative and Complementary medicine is a controversial subject. The WHO underlines the importance of traditional and complementary medicine as a health resource for many applications, especially in the prevention and management of lifestyle-related chronic diseases, and in meeting the health needs of aging populations.1 Nevertheless, during my medical studies I often got the impression that non-conventional medicine and treatment plans are not taken seriously, but being smiled upon. During the SMSC in Lausanne I was positively surprised to see how many students were open to a discussion, and while not everybody will offer integrative and complementary medicine in their future practice, we should all be aware of this topic and know how to address it if a patient brings it up.
The SMSC in Lausanne gave us an insight and allowed for exchange with physicians who use techniques such as hypnosis, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, as well as the implementation of these medicines in pediatrics. During a workshop about phytotherapy, I learned that in Switzerland the market of complementary and herbal medical drugs is regulated and checked for quality, safety and harmlessness by Swissmedic2. Another workshop about the power of nutrition, offered by the Physicians Association for Nutrition Switzerland3, showed scientific evidence to what extent nutrition impacts our health and our planet. A big shoutout to the local SMSC committee in Lausanne for organizing this amazing event, to swimsa for offering the platform and means to carrying it out and last but not least to all the speakers and attendees. Hope to see you in spring 2022 in Lugano!
WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2019. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO 2 https://www.swissmedic.ch/swissmedic/de/home/kpa.html (last consulted 07.11.2021) 3 http://www.pan-ch.org/ (last consulted 07.11.2021) 1
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