Patients’ and clinicians’ expectations on integrative medicine Services for Diabetes: a focus group study

Table 3 Background of Chinese medicine and conventional medicine education among study subjects

Chinese medicine (CM) / Conventional medicine (ConM) background – no. (%)	Patient (n = 21)	ConM physician (n = 14)	CM physician (n = 15)
^{g, i}Formal CM education	0 (0)	1 (7.1)	15 (100)
^{g, j}Informal CM education	3 (14.3)	6 (42.9)	15 (100)
^{h, i}Formal ConM education	0 (0)	14 (100)	15 (100)
^{h, j}Informal ConM education	5 (23.8)	14 (100)	15 (100)

^g attended any Chinese medicine (CM) theory-related sessions including Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, orthopedics and health management
^h attended any biomedical or epidemiological sessions involving clinical medicine
ⁱ defined as credit bearing sessions
^j defined as non-credit bearing sessions including health talks, seminars and other forms of information sessions. All CM physicians were exposed to formal conventional medicine (ConM) education included but not limited to anatomy, physiology, microbiology, immunology, pathology, diagnosis, pharmacology and internal medicine. Postgraduate doctoral clinical training was presented as a comparable qualification of specialist training of CM physicians as there is no CM specialist registration system in Hong Kong. Patients with informal CM and ConM educations were purposively sampled for second and third round. ConM physician with formal CM education were purposively sampled for second round

ISSN: 2662-7671