Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy in Latin-America, a landscape analysis

Latin-American countries share not only linguistic roots but also a similar socio-political evolution, including, but not limited to, the presence of local Indigenous Traditions, European influence through colonization, and African heritage brought to the Americas through the slave-trade.  Nevertheless, there are contrasting approaches to define, understand, and regulate non-conventional health care practices.  Approaches to their integration into healthcare systems is also dissimilar.  This presentation aims to provide a landscape analysis of how non-conventional health care practices are defined, regulated and integrated (or not) at the system-level.  Using comparative methods, trends and contrasts are portrayed.  The analysis delves into understanding patterns and outliers from a historic perspective, including the evolution and transformation of healthcare systems in Latin-America, the role of the state, local and international markets, globalization forces, as well as the cultural heritage and changing demands from the general public.