The impact of health expenditures on public health in BRICS nations

1.Peculiarity of the BRICS emerging economies Since the late 1980s,accelerated globalization has provided economic growth opportunities in mature and emerging economies.The rapidly developing nations of Brazil,Russia,India,China,and South Africa(BRICS nations)have a combined economic output that makes BRICS countries the world's major emerging economies.

Complementary and alternative medicine applications in cancer medicine

Besides conventional medicine,many patients with cancer seek complementary and alternative medicine(CAM)as an additional treatment option.Since the early 1970s,the use of CAM in cancer treatment has expanded worldwide.CAM,as a tempting option,was used by patients with cancer mainly due to easy accessibility.Patients with cancer used CAM to achieve better quality of life or to find a cure.As physicians are mainly unaware of CAM use by patients,doctor-patient communication about CAM use should be brought to a higher level.To identify circumstances in which CAM are preferred,further investigations are needed especially in biologically based therapies.Clinical-based evidence for mind-body therapies have been established,so this type of CAM can be recommended for patients with cancer during chemotherapy.Future studies are necessary to fill the gaps so that CAM users,as well as medical experts,are in position to clearly determine all the benefits and disadvantages of the mentioned therapy.

Complementary and alternative medicine in European countries legislative framework

Complementary and alternative medicine(CAM)is a set of different diagnostic and therapeutic procedures,as well as the use of natural products for the treatment of patients,derived from previously known traditional methods and enriched with modern scientific knowledge.The present article reviews the available data regarding the use of CAM and the legislation behind it in European countries.The use of CAM is recorded in Europe as a whole and varies between 1070%of the population of individual European countries.At least 300,000 registered CAM providers have been identified in the European Union(EU),of which slightly more than half includes non-medical practitioners.The most practiced discipline is acupuncture,followed by homeopathy.CAM regulation and legislation in Europe is not precisely defined and is constantly striving to find a common approach.Since legal frameworks for CAM are not defined,each European country has its own regulations and legislation.In order to define universal legislation for CAM,the EU created the CAMbrella project,a project of the EU designed to find a unique system that would include the treatment of CAM in Europe.According to the data from CAMbrella,from 39 countries in the EU,17 have general CAM legislations.The status of CAM in Europe is characterized by enormous heterogeneity in all aspects,including terminology,methods,prevalence and ultimately,legal status,regulations and legislation.