What do medical specialists think about a proposed academic, integrative health centre in Australia? : a qualitative study

Objectives: This qualitative study aimed to explore medical specialists' perspectives on a proposed academic integrative healthcare (IHC) centre to be established in their local district. Methods: A convenience sample of medical specialists were recruited via direct email invitations that was augmented with snowball sampling until data saturation was reached. The in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted via telephone, audio recorded and transcribed verbatim, followed by a thematic analysis. Results: Eight participants took part in the study. Three main themes emerged: 1) the benefits of an academic setting, 2) sound clinical governance, and 3) specialists in the field of TCIM. Underpinning the three themes was the belief that patients were at risk of harm due to haphazard, unsupervised use of unproven traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM). It was anticipated that an academic centre would address these issues with appropriate risk management protocols, effective interprofessional communication and by upholding the principles of evidence-based practice to ensure safe and coordinated patient-centered care. Opportunities from collaborations within secondary care included centre being recognized as specialists in the field of TCIM, conducting research and bidirectional learning. Conclusions: The findings demonstrated that medical specialists acknowledged the need for a TCIM model of care that interfaces with the local secondary care landscape through the implementation of sound safeguards, credentialed practitioners, and evidence-based practice to adequately protect patients and clinicians. The findings will be amalgamated with the input from other stakeholder groups via a community-based participatory research framework to refine the model of care.