From alternative to integrative: the doctors persuit for acupuncture specialization in UNIFESP

• Grant number: 15/17451-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Dante Marcello Claramonte Gallian
• Grantee: João Roberto Bissoto
• Host Institution: Centro de História e Filosofia das Ciências da Saúde (CEHFI). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There has been a significant increase in demand for integrative practices, especially acupuncture, under the SUS (Unified Health System). What was once viewed with suspicion by many doctors today has growing demand for expertise in the area, including legal discussions about the need for regulation of the practice of it. Already regarded as a medical specialty by the Federal Council of Medicine, acupuncture today is a residency in many academic centers, among them, the most significant in the production of scientific knowledge and pioneer in specific emergency care to the technique, is the Hospital São Paulo, UNIFESP. This study, aligned to Regular Project number 2014/19002-6 ("Humanities, Narratives and Humanization in Health"), aims to address the reasons why doctors seek this expertise, since it is still fresh its overall inclusion in the Unified Health System. The biomedical health system crisis appears to be a key factor for those who sought acupuncture as a profession in the final decades of the last century. This project proposes to examine whether this justification is valid for the academic reality of today, since the integrative practices are being encouraged by governments and the Federal Council of Medicine already recognizes acupuncture as a medical specialty since 1995. The method chosen was the Oral History Life, by matching the ideals of this work, addressing the subjectivity through the narratives of physicians, allowing a qualitative analysis and working in health humanization conditions, this issue present in vocational training.