[Complementary and alternative medicine services in Colombia].

OBJECTIVE

This study's overall objective was to identify the supply and distribution of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services at departmental level and the concentration of CAM service supply in Colombia.

METHOD

The information was obtained from the special list of CAM providers published on the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection (Ministerio de Protección Social) web-site in July 2010.

RESULTS

Bogotá was the city having the greatest concentration of CAM health-service providers, followed by the departments of Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Cauca and Cundinamarca, with their respective capitals, and that the type of alternative medicine-therapy being provided differed very little.

DISCUSSION

Many towns/municipalities in Colombia still lack a record of CAM service providers, meaning that health practitioners specialising in this kind of medicine have great opportunities for providing their services in many parts of the country; likewise, there is a whole field waiting for CAM services to be developed in outpatient and intra-hospital settings different to low-complexity external consultancy.