Crown Road, Auroville 605101, Tamil Nadu, India sante@auroville.org.in (0413) 2622 803 / Auroville Ambulance 94422 24680 (24/7)

Practicing Integral Health in Santé

In addition to everyday clinical practice, activities that support the process of integral health care include:
  • Patient Care Conferences : Weekly meetings with the practitioner team to discuss day-to-day clinical issues. In these meetings, the practitioners may present a case and seek input from a wider circle of professionals. As a result, the patient might be seen and treated by 2-3 health care practitioners aiming for an optimal outcome and the progress of each case is well documented.
  • Clinical Themes : To explore the effectiveness of different disciplines in addressing various pathologies, representatives of multiple health modalities present to the wider team their scope and experience in treating specific pathologies using the principles of their chosen discipline.  Clinical theme discussions serve to develop team awareness  of alternative therapeutic ways. 
  • Shared medical records : Part of the practice of integral health medicine is for each patient to have a comprehensive medical chart that is shared between all the Santé clinicians. This common record give the consulting therapist a wider perspective when treating the patient and it serves as a tool to educate providers of alternative treatment options.
  • Patient Education : A priority and a necessity for integral health entails informing and involving the patient in his or her treatment at every stage.
In the future, the team aims to develop further collaborations with the integral way:
  • Interdisciplinary conferences : Exploring and exchanging the potential of integral health systems amongst health care providers from across the world.
  • Development of an integrative therapeutic approach to treatment of chronic conditions : Upon establishing integrative approaches to selected chronic conditions, a therapeutic protocol can be developed to manage or treat the condition e.g. Diabetes Mellitus, obesity, sleep apnoea, and so many others.  Essential steps includes the primary practitioner’s evaluation of the case followed by an outline of subsequent treatments to follow. Choice of therapies would be made based on previous case studies and regularly re-evaluated with established criteria to assess the patient’s improvement and recovery.
  • Preventive educational materials for patients : Education in the form of workshops, publications and other learning programs meets a primary condition of integral medicine by compelling the patient to be involved and responsible for his/her own health and well-being. 
  • Acute care Services, the integral way : To meet the urgent needs of the acutely ill or those who need home care, acute care services need further development with the participation of different practitioners offering alternative treatment plans.