title: Incentive for a shift from modern scientific medicine to integrative medicine.
abstract: Medicine has been evaluated in recent years both quantitatively and qualitatively. Contemporary medicine has been assumed to be conceptually based on modern science. However, there is a problem that quantity and quality are hard to evaluate using only scientific parameters. It is, therefore, the aim of this article to emphasize that the quantity and quality of medicine need to be evaluated not only from the standpoint of modern scientific medicine but also in terms of integrative medicine. Integrative medicine is postulated to be comprehensive in its fundamental doctrine, emphasizing a holistic approach including technical, artistic, social, religious, philosophical, and ethical elements. However, in evaluating carefully and seriously actual performance, it was noted that contemporary medicine has been giving greater emphasis to aspects of integrative medicine where increasing concern is paid to patients' personal preferences, as indicated by their quality of life. An incentive for a shift from exclusively scientific to integrative medicine, which started as early as the 1970s, is revival emotion toward a prime modality of medicine.
authors.affiliation: Blood Purification Center, Itabashi Chuo Medical Center, 2-12-7 Azusawa, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 174-0051, Japan. na6t-ags@asahi-net-or.jp
authors.forename: Tetsuzo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Agishi
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D018511:Systems Integration