Medical systems research viewed from different perspectives · QRPV

The research congress will be held in English.

Opening of the congress · Erik Baars, Karin Michael, David Martin, Friedemann Schad
Holistic medical systems research from a conventional perspective · Gene Feder
Holistic medicine research from the perspective of TCIM · Nadine Ijaz
Framework for evidence synthesis of TCIM systems incorporating context and complexity · Robbert van Haselen

Date and time: 27 February 2026, 13:30 CET
English

Holistic medical systems research from a conventional perspective: assessing complex interventions in healthcare · Prof. Dr. Gene Feder

This lecture will set out the challenges of evaluating complex clinical and educational interventions in healthcare and present a framework from the UK Medical Research Council as a response to these challenges within a conventional research paradigm. I will illustrate the application of this framework in the development and evaluation of complex interventions in my own research, using examples from the fields of chronic disease management and trauma-informed care. The key principles of my work: context sensitivity, process evaluation, theory-driven design and collaboration with stakeholders, especially patients.

Holistic medicine research from the perspective of TCIM · Prof. Dr. Nadine Ijaz

One principle of good research quality is that the methodology should be appropriate to the subject of investigation. This principle is increasingly forming the basis for evidence-based decision-making worldwide, including at the World Health Organization (WHO). However, in the global context of the dominance of biomedicine, systematic reviews of placebo-controlled randomised controlled trials continue to be widely regarded as the “universal” gold standard in health research. Even as biomedical research into complex and personalised therapies becomes more widespread – as does the use of pragmatic and mixed methods to investigate effectiveness in the “real world” and patient-reported outcome measures – researchers in the field of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) continue to face methodological hurdles. The greatest challenge lies in selecting research designs suited to investigating holistic, complex medical systems based on holistic, salutogenic, ecocentric and/or vitalistic knowledge. The paradigmatic principles of these systems differ considerably from the reductionist, pathocentric, mechanistic premises that have historically shaped dominant biomedicine. This lecture will discuss the findings of a comprehensive review commissioned by the WHO on “paradigmatic alignment” in TCIM research, focusing on scientific approaches that adequately take into account the premises and practices of holistic TCIM therapeutic systems. These research approaches are interdisciplinary and encompass the social sciences and humanities, basic research and preclinical, clinical and epidemiological research, health systems and implementation research, and build on the groundbreaking methodological work of Indigenous scholars. The principles of evidence pluralism and epistemic justice, and their implications for evidence-based decision-making in TCIM, will also be discussed.

Framework for evidence synthesis of TCIM systems incorporating context and complexity · Dr. Robbert Van Haselen

Evidence synthesis for whole medical systems is a challenge. A framework has been developed that highlights the importance of complexity, context and patient perspectives as appropriate for many systems of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM). The consequences of these principles for the approach to evidence synthesis are examined and illustrated using an ongoing systematic review programme on the effects and effectiveness of homeopathy. A complex-systems perspective on evidence synthesis requires considering a wide range of evidence sources as well as assessing the alignment between study design and the “state of the art” practice of the whole medical system (“model validity”). Evidence synthesis can be based on established standards (Cochrane, GRADE, etc.), but in order to make informed decisions it is essential that these findings are then embedded in the broader context of the current state of knowledge. Evidence synthesis of TCIM systems can go beyond conventional approaches by situating evidence in its complexity and context together with practice data and patient perspectives.