John Appleton - Nutraceuticals Store New Zealand

Mission Statement

To act as the peak medical body promoting the integration of safe, evidence-based complementary medicines & therapies with current mainstream medical practice, in pursuit of a complete whole person care.

The Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA) is an independent not for profit organisation of individual medical practitioners seeking to provide whole person medical care by integrating evidence-based complementary medicine into mainstream practice. AIMA is supported by its membership and governed by a Board of voluntary doctors and academic leaders in the field of integrative medicine. (See AIMA Board for a list of current serving Board Members)

Since its inception in 1992, AIMA has grown to be the leading voice for integrative practitioners. AIMA’s membership and successful events, including the International Holistic Health Conference, have helped promote the growing body of research and provide education about complementary medicines and therapies.

AIMA has forged relationships with key organisations such as the RACGP – through the AIMA/RACGP Joint Working Party, TGA and AMA as well as other professional bodies with an interest in integrative therapies.  Currently AIMA has a special Joint Working Party with the RACGP (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners). AIMA works collaboratively with other associations such as the Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (ACNEM) in a spirit of mutual support.

AIMA has prepared Position Statements on areas of complementary medicine such as Long Consultations by medical practitioners.
AIMA seeks to ensure both practitioners and consumers have access to the best available knowledge about the benefits and risks of these modalities so that optimal patient care and good health can be achieved and maintained.

Our Aims:

AIMA works with medical practitioners, medical students and complementary therapists to:

• Promote the practice of evidence based integrative medicine
• Act as a peak peer body for medical practitioners
• Maintain the role of the medical practitioner as the primary care provider whilst working in a multidisciplinary team of other health providers
• Collect and circulate research and other information relating to the mainstream and complementary medicine profession to members
• Encourage the practice of ethical non-pharmaceutical approaches when appropriate 
• Act as an advisory body to government and medical bodies in the formation of policies relating to integrative medicine
• Promote improvements or changes in the law relating to medical practice where appropriate
• Provides support for Medical Student Associations with an interest in Integrative Medicine.

In addition, the AIMA provides its members with regular Journals, as well as hosting the annual International Holistic Health Conference. This conference aims to provide health professionals with an opportunity to learn and update their knowledge in the field of complementary medicine, to help match the increasing demand for holistic medical treatment by their patients AIMA is responding to the increasing demand by the community and the body of general practitioners to learn more about complementary medicine. AIMA’s membership continues to grow and our role becomes ever more important.

The Philosophy of AIMA

• Abide by the Hippocratic dictum of “first do no harm”.
• Respect for patient’s autonomy and participatory role in the healing process.
• Serve our patients and the community with a focus on prevention and health promotion.
• Encourage a holistic and collaborative attitude amongst doctors and health care professionals.
• Uphold the World Health Organisation mandate for optimal health to be inclusive of physical, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual well being
• Maintain the role of the medical practitioner as the primary care provider whilst working in a multidisciplinary team of other health providers.
• Promote models of health care which attend to a person’s experience of illness, as well as their symptoms of disease via ethical, natural and wherever possible, evidence-based therapies. 
• To be guided by the Declaration of Helsinki (of World Health Organisation) that maintains: that a physician must be free to use the most appropriate treatment if in his or her judgement it will result in the alleviation of suffering or the restoration of health or saving the life of a patient.

Core Values

• To encourage a holistic attitude amongst doctors and medical students and enhance skills in whole person medicine.
• To encourage the ‘wellness’ paradigm amongst medical practitioners by fostering an attitude of Prevention and Health Promotion as a fundamental cornerstone in primary care.
• To foster an attitude of respect for the rights of patients to exercise choice, and ownership of their treatment and management, and doing so with the giving of proper information, both mainstream and complementary to assist patients with their decision towards consent or refusal of specific treatments.