Best Practices in Intercultural Health: Five Case Studies in Latin America

The practice of integrating western and traditional indigenous medicine is fast becoming anaccepted and more widely used approach in health care systems throughout the world. However,debates about intercultural health approaches have raised significant concerns. This paper reportsfindings of five case studies on intercultural health in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, andSuriname. It presents summary information on each case study, comparatively analyzes theinitiatives following four main analytical themes, and examines the case studies against a series ofthe best practice criteria.