Integrative medicine is a new model of care developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which inserts alternative practices to traditional procedures. The body recommends that all governments include the method to the public network. Currently, the initiative has greater prominence in oncology, cardiology, pain and pediatrics.
The scientific coordinator of the Integrative Pediatrics Program of the Instituto da Criança (Itaci), HC, Ricardo Ghelman, argues that all new treatments employed are scientific evidence. In 2006, the Ministry of Health authorized the use of only five practices in the Unified Health System (SUS). This year, the number jumped to 19.
To demonstrate the importance of these projects, Ghelman states that it has been observed in England that the length of hospital stay of children with cancer in rooms with a view to trees is smaller when compared to the time they are secluded in rooms with only white walls. Thus, the USP Cancer Children's Hospital implemented the pioneering therapy of nature appreciation, in which the medical team interacts more with the environment.