Patients prefer treatments that are safe, curative and cheap. Integrative medicine (IM) gathers the best of modern medicine and other types of human medicine e.g. prophetic medicine and others. College of Medicine at Taibah University (CMTU, Saudi Arabia) is the first pioneering medical school in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in introducing IM education. Patients' needs to IM increase in case of treatment failure e.g. cancer patients who can't afford chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Unfortunately, lack of teaching IM at medical schools deprives both physicians and patients from many therapeutic benefits e.g. Al-hijamah (wet cupping therapy of prophetic medicine), nigella sativa and others depriving. Objectives: to investigate medical students' satisfaction with IM medical education for better health benefits. Design: A prospective cross-sectional study. Settings: College of Medicine at Taibah University (CMTU, Saudi Arabia). Subjects and Methods: CMTU introduced IM education in its medical curriculum to enhance patients and physicians medical knowledge. Taking ethical committee approval and agreements of participating students, this study was done in CMTU over the past ten years (2007-2016). 650 students (out of 1000 students) shared in the study questionnaire. Sample size: 650 medical students. Main Outcome Measures: Vast majority of the investigated students (611/650, 94%) were satisfied with IM course. RESULTS: 320 students (49%) considered the IM course to be excellent to very good for both physicians and patients' medical knowledge. 93.8% (610/650) gave a positive evaluation. 55% (360/650) evaluated the course knowledge as good to very good for benefiting patients in the future. 47% (305/650) liked to take IM as a future minor while 38% (247/650) of the investigated students already decided their future IM subspecialties. 91% (591/650) accepted Arabic language (student' mother tongue) to be the main language of studying IM. Conclusion: Teaching IM at CMTU is promising, welcomed by medical students, expected to gain better patients preference and should be generalized in other Saudi and international medical schools. |
