Integrating medical systems - The desired and the actual (drawing parallels between Russia and Bulgaria)

Abstract

The article considers the issue of integration in the field of healthcare and, more broadly, health preservation. It deals with related terminology in an attempt to clarify what exactly is included in the notion of integration at present and how, in reality, integrating medical systems, practices and methods is represented in Russia and Bulgaria, as well as how specialists see the integration approach to human health. The authors note that legislation in these two countries does not always regulate the activity of specialists in non-conventional medicine and their interaction with the ones in conventional medicine, thus restraining such integration the World Health Organisation is seeking to enhance, while the real 'integration' often turns out to be a business. All this indicates that what is taking place does not correspond to the meaning of the term as it is currently understood.