Date of Publication

2-24-2010

Abstract

Introduction: • Despite the high prevalence of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) usage, several recent surveys suggest that the vast majority of patient visits to CAM practitioners are self-referred and that communication between conventional and CAM practitioners is limited. • There is a need for a better understandingof factors influencing referral patterns across these two groups of practitioners. • Network analysis provides a useful tool to quantify relationships between members of an interrelated social network. • The goal of this follow up study was to quantify the cross-class referral patterns between conventional and CAM classes of practitioners in Chittenden County Vermont as well as gather additional information on the basis of referrals for future studies. • This study was a preliminary examination of possible reasons for the referral patterns.

Advisor(s)

Phil Trabulsy, MD, University of Vermont College of Medicine Program in Integrative Medicine

Margaret Eppstein, PhD, University of Vermont College of Medicine

Helene Langevin, MD, University of Vermont College of Medicine

Agency

University of Vermont College of Medicine Program in Integrative Medicine

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License

Referral Patterns Between Allopathic Physicians and Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners: A Followup Study
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