'Integrative Health' As a Political Project: Institutional Arrangements Towards CAM at the Federal Level in the U.S.

Geoffroy Carpier (1) , Patrice Cohen (1)

1 DySoLab - Laboratoire des Dynamiques Sociales

In 2015, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) centre dedicated to medical research on CAM, formerly the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), changed its name to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). Instituting CAM as adjuncts rather than alternatives to conventional care, the political decisions behind this semantic shift reveal processes of re-legitimisation after crises as well as the critiques and controversies federal institutions had to face in the field of medical research on CAM from the 1990s until today. These re-legitimisations at the federal level now revolve around the emerging project of 'integrative health' in the U.S. in answer to non-federal and multiform configurations taken by the promotion and practice of 'integrative medicine' (consortia, academic hospitals and research units, private clinics, professional groups, etc.). 'Integrative medicine' has already been through processes of legitimisation since the 1990s (such as evidence-based and standardised practices). In 2008, 'integrative medicine' became an official physician specialty. In fact, both federal and non-federal legitimisations towards integration are now being articulated together.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Sociologie

Geoffroy Carpier, Patrice Cohen. 'Integrative Health' As a Political Project: Institutional Arrangements Towards CAM at the Federal Level in the U.S.. Power, violence and justice : reflections, responses, responsibilities, Jul 2018, Toronto, Canada. ⟨hal-02274764⟩