Unlike the medical doctor’s “unlimited” license, CAM practitioners have “limited” licensure that carves out a designated scope of practice.

The relationship between conventional and alternative medicine is wary at best. What is needed is expanded medicine, which encompasses the best that both kinds of medicine have to offer.

Physicians cannot ignore the importance of CAM to patients, whether or not they agree with its use.

Discussing CAM offers an opportunity to study the development of basic medical science that refuted vitalism, homeopathy, humoral theory, miasma theory, the doctrine of signatures, and other prescientific myths that persist today.

Alternative medicine practitioners may offer a more informative and satisfying relationship to patients, and the anecdotal support for alternative treatments’ rationales may have emotional appeal, but quack medicines cost money and cause harm. What really matters is whether a treatment can stand up to scientific testing.

Integrative medicine combines the best of both conventional and evidence-based CAM therapies for treatment, wellness, and prevention. 61 percent of cancer survivors have used CAM.

Research has shown that ethics committees are less prevalent in rural hospitals than elsewhere, they do not fulfill the typical role, and they are seldom used; rural health care workers do not see bioethics analysis as applicable to the challenges they face, and they are hesitant to take action about many ethical problems.

Many rural physicians must cope with being the sole medical resource for a community, creating the potential for isolation and burnout.

The Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine seeks candidates with an increased probability of practicing in rural Wisconsin, delivers the curriculum in collaboration with rural partners, and encourages students' interest in rural practice and living.

A primer on diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis through patient history, a physical examination, and laboratory tests.