Table 1

Stakeholder perspectives. Summary of conventional care (CC), complementary therapies (CT) and research (RES) stakeholder perspectives on facilitators, barriers and strategies for developing and implementing a model of integrative medicine (IM) in Swedish primary care.

Stake- holder
Facilitators
Barriers
Project strategies

CC
Documented public desire for increased collaboration
Lack of knowledge and know-how
General practitioner gatekeeper with CT interest, knowledge and experience leading the clinical part

Limitations of conventional care in certain areas/cases
Primary care unit resources
General practitioner meetings with management/administration about resource allocation and logistics

Personal interest to provide more holistic primary care
No formal IM recognition in Sweden
Priority of reimbursing CT providers

Improve knowledge and evidence base of IM
Scientific evidence base
Part-time provider commitment

Improve recognition of IM
Large variation of CT terminologies and documentation routines
Ethical clearance


The Swedish Health Services Act


CT
Increase respect for patients' treatment choices
Value added tax (25%) on CTs and no public insurance policy for CTs
CT providers with experience sharing cases with conventional providers

CT access to interdisciplinary cooperation
No official recognition of CT professions
An IM model broad enough to encompass all selected CTs/medical models

Represent different medical models within Swedish primary care
Interdisciplinary dialogue rare
Consensus case conferences to facilitate and document interdisciplinary dialogue

Extend the evidence-based medicine concept
Unfamiliarity with primary care documentation routines
Part time CT provider commitment

Improve national awareness and recognition of existing international IM practices
The Swedish Health Services Act
Include quality of life, stress and wellbeing outcomes

Improve focus on care, health promotion and Prevention



RES
Explore stakeholder perspectives on IM in Swedish primary care
Limited evidence base for IM
Initial core group development meetings to facilitate research project

Explore patient experiences of integration of complementary therapies in primary care
Lack of published randomised clinical trials of IM in primary care
Include both qualitative and quantitative methods of evaluation

Explore general clinical effectiveness of the IM model vs. treatment as usual
Difficulties to obtain research funding
Information and educational seminars to improve understanding between stakeholders and facilitate shared documentation routines

Improve the evidence base for integration of CTs into primary care
Unknown recruitment speed and recruitment pattern of patients
Continuous grant writing to secure funding


No pre-defined or given set of outcomes
Referral network of primary care units


No established referral network


Sundberg et al. BMC Health Services Research 2007 7:107   doi:10.1186/1472-6963-7-107