This is an evolving method of practice rather than a separate field in healthcare. The following principles are essential to a complete definition:

• Patient or client-centered care
• Encouragement of self-care and personal responsibility for health
• Mind-body-spirit are conjoined and mutually essential to the healing of whole persons
• The goal of healthcare is not only the treatment of disease but promoting vibrant health, wellness, and the highest potential for human beings
• Working together in collaborative partnership with other healthcare providers and the patient in interdisciplinary teams
• Openness to using alternative or complementary therapies with a record of safety and efficacy but which are outside of the conventional biomedical model
• Application of evidence-based, critical thinking skills when integrating alternative therapies with conventional therapies
• Using natural, less invasive approaches whenever possible
• Health and healing is individually determined and may be different for each person so a person may be "healed" without being cured
• Integrative healthcare is more than a compilation of treatments or modalities; it is a way of viewing healthcare, often requiring a paradigm shift for the healthcare provider and/or patient

Victor S. Sierpina, MD