About Seekers » Our Vision
We believe that therapies outside of conventional medicine can help people with chronic illnesses improve their quality of life and offer hope of a return to health. We combine conventional medical knowledge, testing and treatment with a wide range of other tools and treatments that can help patients achieve these goals.
We believe that research evidence should guide treatment whenever possible and our therapies are as evidence-based as possible. We also hope to generate evidence supporting integrative medicine. Nonetheless, the vast wealth of traditional healing wisdom should not be ignored. This is based on a realistic understanding that most research funding aims to validate patented pharmaceutical drugs.
While it is currently frowned upon to deviate from the rigid standards of conventional medical practice, physicians must not be discouraged from helping their patients explore other therapies. Clinical practice guidelines have improved patient care, but the individual physician-scientist has been an important figure in the advancement of medicine throughout its history and this should be encouraged in the spirit of discovery and progress.
Conventional medicine is far from complete in its understanding of health and disease. Traditional healing systems are a rich source of knowledge that can benefit humanity. These systems all suggest that our health is not possible without the health of our environment, and we believe that human health is the most important reason to heal the planet.
Physicians who are interested in complementary and alternative medicine need to seek out this information for themselves. They cannot rely on guidelines or medical conferences to deliver this aspect of their continuing education until a huge amount of evidence makes their benefit irrefutable. Thus, this sort of physician is, by nature, a Seeker.
Patients must be seekers too. In the age of the internet, information is no longer the domain of a privileged elite. It is freely accessible to all. To get the best care, many people with serious illness no longer solely rely on their doctors for information - they are taking responsibility for their own health - for their own lives.
However, a little information can be a dangerous thing. Without a background of medical training and clinical experience, patients can often spend time and money pursuing therapies that are less likely to be effective. Our Centre aims to offer training and guidance to doctors and patients who consider themselves Seekers.
Our mission at the Seekers Centre is to integrate effective complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies and traditional healing systems into the standard medical approach to the diagnosis and treatment of disease by: