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The Global Health Care Arena Essay

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Introduction and Problem Rationale
The global health care arena in the past three decades has been transformed by the growth in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by residents in both developed and developing countries. The increase in public interest in the use of CAM is particularly high in Western societies where conventional biomedicine has dominated the health care landscape (Bishop & Lewith, 2010; Bodeker & Kronenberg, 2002; Boon, 2002). CAM has become a critical component of the public health care system of many western countries, including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Andrews & Boon, 2005; Eisenberg et al., 1993; Fautrel et al., 2002; McLaughlin, Lui, & Adams, 2012; Thomas, Nicholl, & Coleman, 2001). Whereas there are many definitions and conceptions of CAM, the term is often used in references to medical and health practices that have different traditions, practices, and bodies of knowledge from conventional biomedicine (Adams et al., 2011; Hall, Griffiths, & McKenna, 2014; Reid, Steel, Wardle, Trubody, & Adams, 2016). Thus, it encapsulates both indigenous health traditions of the world (for example, Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine) as well as, contemporary alternative forms of health care such as chiropractic, aromatherapy, and naturopathy. A distinct feature of these alternative forms of health care is their psychosocial paradigm of health and wellbeing (Anyinam, 1990; Bowleg, 2012). A fundamental

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