Naturopathy curriculum: A step for health reform in Thailand

Sir,

The recent article on health sector reform by Darshan Shankar is very interesting.[1] As mentioned by Shankar, acceptance of “Allopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Sowa-rigpa, Unani, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Yoga” can be seen in India.[1] There are more alternative systems comparing to our country, Thailand. Here, the traditional medicine is limitedly recognized, and the naturopathy is just in its starting phase of acceptance. The first curriculum of naturopathy was firstly developed and set at Surin Rajabhat University, which is aimed to be the first start of implementation of standard naturopathy practice in Thailand. The curriculum is set based on and referred to the curriculum of American Society of Naturopathy. To make it fit with the local scenario of Thailand, the brainstorming meeting for discussing and criticizing the first curriculum is done. Several experts from governmental and private unit who deal with traditional medicine and natural medicine practice are invited for sharing the idea. According to the meeting, there are some conclusions on the specific identities of naturopathy curriculum in Thailand as following: (a) Interprofessional practice,[2] the multidisciplinary linkage among ones who practice relating to natural medicine, should be focused, (b) specific focus on local wisdom should be inserted in practice, (c) merit of local Buddhism has to be largely considered, (d) the focused group of learners should be one who is certified in biomedical practice as well as one who have biomedical science degree, and (e) setting of the specific naturopathy medical center has to be done to correspond to naturopathy practice.