Integrative Community Healthcare: A Preventive Care Perspective
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Abstract
Healthcare systems face growing pressure from chronic disease, multimorbidity, workforce constraints and rising expenditure. This Perspective and Policy Proposal outlines an Integrated Community Health Navigator Model linking conventional medical care with selected evidence-informed complementary and integrative interventions, including structured physical activity, yoga, mindfulness, acupuncture, nutrition support and social prescribing. The proposal does not assume that Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is uniformly effective or cost-saving; individual interventions should be commissioned only where condition-specific evidence, safety, practitioner competence and cost-effectiveness justify their use. The model places prevention, early identification, self-management and coordinated escalation at the centre of community care while retaining hospitals for acute and specialist services. Digital tools, wearables and artificial intelligence may support risk stratification and remote monitoring, but their clinical value depends on validation, governance, equity, data quality and human oversight. Economic evidence is promising for some preventive, integrated and complementary interventions but remains heterogeneous. The paper therefore presents a testable service model and proposes staged implementation, rigorous outcome measurement and prospective economic evaluation before large-scale adoption.
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