Special Issue: Global Public Health – Contributions  of Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine in Primary Care

Special Issue Advisory Team

• Distinguished Professor Jon Adams, University of Technology Sydney, School of Public Health, Director of Australian Research Centre in Complementary and Integrative Medicine
• Associate Professor Vincent Chung, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Head of Development of School of Chinese Medicine, Convenor of the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine
• Professor Olufunmilayo Fawole, University of Ibadan / University College Hospital, College of Medicine, Ibadan, Nigeria
• Dr. Daniel Gallego-Perez, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Program of Integrative Medicine; Chair, Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Medicine Section, American Public Health Association
• Professor Hassan Kaya, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban South Africa, Director of Centre of Indigenous Knowledge Systems
• Dr. Nicole Redvers, University of North Dakota, Assistant Professor in Family and Community Medicine
• Dr. Naveen Visweswaraiah, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Faculty; SDM College of Naturopathy & Yogic Sciences Ujire, Karnataka, India, Adjunct Professor; Yogaksema Chain of Clinics, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Medical Director
• Professor Jon Wardle, Southern Cross University, National Centre of Naturopathic Medicine
   

The 2018 Declaration of Astana* issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) represents a landmark step for all of primary health care, public health, and traditional complementary and integrative medicine. It brings together the priorities of the WHO’s 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration, the international importance of universal health coverage, and the ongoing efforts of the global community to reach UNICEF’s Sustainable Development Goals. It is the first global primary health care document to explicitly acknowledge the value and importance of traditional medicine systems in achieving successful primary health services; ‘success’ being underpinned by specific commitments and evaluated by key success measures**. The Declaration explicitly refers to the application of traditional knowledge and the appropriate inclusion of traditional medicines as factors that will drive the success of primary care. However, the Declaration also makes commitments and identifies other success drivers that, despite not being directly linked to traditional and integrative care, are equally relevant. These omissions represent potentially untapped and overlooked opportunities for meaningful engagement to improve primary care.

In early 2023, the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine (JICM): Advancing Whole Health will publish a Special Focus Issue on Global Public Health Contributions of Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine in Primary Care. The goal of the Special Focus Issue is to bring together scholars and thought leaders from around the world to respond to the Declaration of Astana. It will showcase research and scholarship examining the opportunities and challenges traditional and integrative approaches offer to governments and health service providers seeking to fulfill on the Declaration of Astana’s promise to the global community. The resulting Special Focus Issue is intended to provide an enduring volume that will both aggregate the best new knowledge on this topic, while also being an important and useful aid in educating policymakers and others about current and potential future opportunities and challenges associated with integration, and prompt the field toward more robust engagement with critical public health approaches, and the Declaration of Astana in particular. 

The Special Issue will be managed by an expert team of guest editors consisting of Prof. Gail Hughes (South Africa), Dr. Elizabeth Sommers (U.S.), and Dr. Amie Steel (Australia). Supporting them is a Special Issue Advisory Team with representatives from around the world. 

We Invite Your Submissions! The Editorial Team invites submissions of original research articles, rigorous reviews, and commentary articles exploring this important topic area. We encourage research from all world regions and investigating any established traditional system of medicine in current use. All study designs (survey research, policy analysis, qualitative research, implementation studies, economic analyses, clinical trials, meta-analyses, health services research) will be considered. 

Submission process: Each submission will initially be screened through an Expression of Interest process through which authorship teams will provide a synopsis of the proposed article and a statement describing how the article addresses one or more of the Declaration of Astana’s commitments and/or success measures (e.g., improving health outcomes, development of the primary healthcare workforce, enhanced access to primary healthcare, use of new health treatments [technologies], economic outcomes). Following evaluation of the Expressions of Interest, the editorial team will invite selected authorship teams to submit their manuscripts for peer-review and full consideration for inclusion in the Special Issue. 

Manuscript submission due date: Submissions due 29th July 2022. Expected date of publication: February 2023.

Expressions of Interest should be sent via email to: SIpublichealth@liebertpub.com
 
*Commitments of the Declaration of Astana:

• Make bold political choices for health across all sectors
• Build sustainable primary health care
• Empower individuals and communities
• Align stakeholder support to national policies, strategies, and plans

**The success of primary healthcare will be driven by:

• Knowledge and capacity-building
• Human resources for health
• Technologies (i.e., new health treatments)
• Financing

Ref: Declaration of Astana: Global Conference on Primary Health Care 2018
 

Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine (JICM), the Official Journal of the Society for Acupuncture Research and the Society for Integrative Oncology, is the leading peer-reviewed journal providing scientific research for the evaluation and integration of complementary and integrative medicine into mainstream medical practice. The Journal is under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Holger Cramer, PhD, University of Duisburg-Essen, and other leading investigators. View the entire editorial board.

Benefits of publishing with JICM:

• Latest Impact Factor: 2.381
• Indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science JCR Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE), among other leading indexing services
• Fast and user-friendly electronic submission 
• Efficient and constructive peer review
• Prompt online publication 
• High global visibility: accessible in 170 countries worldwide 
• Open Access options available

Visit the journal website to view more information for authors including manuscript guidelines, information on available author services, and publication costs.