Notes on collaboration between non-conventional medicines and biomedicine in official health care settings (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Keywords:
collaborative health care, non-conventional medicine, biomedicine, hospitals, integrative medicineAbstract
The paper aims to analyze the constitutive aspects of collaborative work between non-conventional medicines (NCM) and biomedicine, in official health care settings. Using an interpretive approach, we focus on exploring a non-conventional practice experience – foot reflexology – in a Palliative Care service, located in an oncology institute that depends on a national public university. The paper shows how negotiations contribute to articulating tasks, managing tensions and covering “gaps” related to definitions and rules. The paper develops three aspects that made this type of work possible: the organizational, the jurisdictional and the discursive. The value of this research lies in the fact that collaborative work between MNC and biomedicine constitutes a particularly elusive dimension of the phenomenon, while non-biomedical therapies usually assume a “parallel” mode of supply in relation to official medicine.
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