title: Finding a sustainable prototype for integrative medicine.
abstract: Mainstreaming traditional systems of medicine and integrating them with the established health delivery mechanisms is an important step in accelerating advancement of health sciences to achieve current global health care goals. This paper proposes the "axial-model" of Integrative Medicine (IM). A replicable model, viable across multiple IM possibilities, which are clinically beneficial, supports evidence-based evolution and is socially acceptable. Axial model may be implemented to integrate two or more systems of medicines, provided they are legally regulated and approved for clinical administration. It proposes three consecutively phased clinical processes, named parallel, complementary and protocol, respectively. The model supports translational medicine by mainstreaming beneficial practices of traditional medicine as a part of its process of execution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrative Medicine, Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Geetha Krishnan Gopalakrishna
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Pillai
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Medanta, The Medicity, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Pooja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
keywords: Integrative medicine; mainstreaming traditional medicine; translational medicine