Key:medical system:*

Prefix medical_system:*
Description
A namespace for the medical system of a health care related facility, person, service, or amenity.
Group: health
Used on these elements
Requires
health_facility:type=* or health_person:type=* or health_amenity:*=* or health_service:*=*
Useful combination
health_specialty:*=* name=* operator=* phone=* website=* opening_hours=*
See also
Proposal:Healthcare 2.0
Status: in use
taginfo: medical_system:*

This page describes a key prefix rather than a simple key.

This composite key describes the medical system used by the object.

Use

medical_system:*=yes/no

Replace the * with the designation of the medical system.

If it has an international known name, then it should be used, otherwise the name of the country or region of the world, where it originated from should be used.

The word “traditional”, which is mainly used when the medical system is exported to the outer world, should not be used in this place. The medical system must be always a traditional medical system which is or was used many centuries as the main system to treat people in this region or country of the world.

Decision help, if a medical system would apply to a health care related object:

1. The person who use an affecting medical system, was educated in a country/region, where this medical system has a long term historic and traditional base.
2. If the medical system is used in countries/regions where it is not originated from, e.g. imported from countries where it has a traditional base, then the knowledge base and quality of training of the persons who use it, must be comparable to the latest research in the originating countries. This usually means, that there is at least 20 years (one generation) of own ongoing medical research on a wider base and that there are at least some research facilities which give training in this medical system. The medical system is therefore in common use in this country and exists not only as a niche specialty.

If at least one of these conditions are not met, then the object may fall into an other, more common used medical system in this region of the world, such as the western medical system.

Here is some additional decision help, as especially in the regions, where the western medical system is common used, it is very common to "borrow" fragments from other medical systems, regardless of how good the evidence for it's conceptual integration really are:

• To which medical system does the formal diagnosis or disease belong, for which the medical services/therapies are offered? This in most cases indicate the medical system on which the treatment is based.
• If the origin or belonging of a medical procedure is further unclear and there is a (limited) scientific research base, on which medical system is the scientific evidence based, which try to explain it?

Background and explanation

It is common practice, that traditional medical systems are taught in crash courses in western countries, so the training is neither comparable in time nor in comprehensiveness and currentness. There exists also no up-to-date literature as there is no wider research base. This applies not to “exported” persons, who were trained in the originating countries, as the training was up-to-date on this time, and they can get and read the original literature.

Here is an illustrating example from the western medicine in Germany, which themselves calls them "scientific" or evidence based: For many years now, their is an formal additional training in acupuncture. Description from the official German example course book: "The additional training in acupuncture includes, in addition to the formal specialty training of the physician, the therapeutic influencing of body functions via defined points and areas of the body surface using acupuncture techniques, for which effectiveness has been proven."

For the the other parts of the Chinese medical system, it seems the, at least partial, effectiveness has not been proven. So nobody wonders, that you learn something about the additional use of ear acupuncture instead of better and extended training in the basic diagnostic procedures, such as tooth- or pulse diagnostics. Diagnostics seems not to go far beyond general and specific function circle dependent pathogens. The endogenic opioid- and non-opioid neurotransmitter systems are used as base for explaining the acupuncture effects, which are based on the research done in western medical system, even if applicable to other medical systems as well. Acupuncture is seen as a special pain therapy method only. Acupuncture point selection algorithm and more then a few traditional point combinations seems also not to be taught in any kind. A few years ago, we also had a formal additional training for prescribing water and sugar here in Germany. Science at it's best!

Yes, integrative medicine or complementary and alternative medicine, are a useful additions to overcome the limitations of every medical system, but the traditional medical systems should be done right or not at all, at least until they are complete understood!

Examples

Key	Value	Description
medical_system:ayurveeda	yes/no	Traditional native medical system of the Indian subcontinent.
medical_system:chinese		Traditional Chinese medical system.
medical_system:kampo		Traditional Japanese medical system.
medical_system:mongolian		Traditional Mongolian medical system.
medical_system:tibetan		Traditional Tibetan medical system.
medical_system:sidda		Traditional south Indian Tamil medical system.
medical_system:unani		Traditional Greeko-Islamic medical system, mainly used in South Asia.
medical_system:unknown		The used medical system of the object is not known.
medical_system:western		Western medical system used globally, now based on science.

Schema.org

“But they have homeopathy on schema.org...”

A few days ago I came across schema.org and found MedicineSystem as an obscure object class there. Is this class for medicinal systems or medical systems? If they mean medical system, why there are values for treatment theories e.g.“treat same things with the same” as for homeopathy, which is in this case also a medicinal theory, but for other (obscure) treatment theories (e.g. osteopathy or orthomolecular medicine) inside the western medical system this is not so clear, so there should be a class for (at least) treatment theories.

See also

• See discussion on the talk page for further explanation, controversial aspects and different views.