S.A.S.I.M. (South African Society of Integrated Medicine) was initiated in 2001. SASIM is an association of registered Health Practitioners, who practise, or have an interest in Integrative Medicine.

Some features of this practice may include the following:

Medical doctors and other health practitioners are currently integrating many of these techniques and skills into their practices in South Africa.

A Paradigm Shift in Medicine

The South African government is unique and unprecedented in the way it has responded to its practitioners of complementary and traditional medicine by creating a Statutory Register for 10 disciplines of Allied or Complementary Medicine under the Allied Health Professions Council [AHPCSA] in 2001. In doing so there is the danger that it creates a situation whereby each discipline is increasing bound by a defined scope of practice.

This structure is not in tune with trends in other parts of the world. In China medical doctors must do at least one year of traditional medicine, and in India medical doctors are integrating many aspects of traditional Indian medicine into their practice. The same process of integration is happening in most other countries of the world.

In Australia, the Australian Medical Council has established a working party to consider the introduction of complementary therapies into medical schools. More than half the medical schools in Australia plan to expand their courses of complementary medicine offered in this area.

Thus there is a general trend happening within conventional medicine with the introduction of complementary practices, and a very clear integration of these practices into a new philosophical paradigm. It is believed that this integration process is preceding the next paradigm shift in medicine, which will move away from its specialization in biochemistry and drugs, towards a more energetic understanding, as physicists and engineers become part of research teams.

Traditional medicine has also introduced doctors to a more organic and intuitive medicine, where experience is given equal status to experiment. This movement from biochemistry to bio-energy, from experiment to experience, from parts to wholes and from individual organs to complex dynamic systems has been incorporated into a system of medicine now referred to as Integrative Medicine.

We encourage South African health practitioners to join SASIM to strengthen our position in this country as a force of change.

Contact SASIM:

Tel: -27-21-885 1010
Fax: -27-21-885 2565
email: s.a.s.i.m@telkomsa.net