Understanding the Extent and Diversity of Homeopathic Practice in Australia

The broad objective of this project is to understand the extent and diversity of professional homeopathic practice in Australia. A snapshot of clinical practice taken over an eight-week period is reported. The demographics of patients, conditions treated, and remedy prescriptions are studied. This pilot study is approved through the Ethics Committee process. Informed consent is obtained by both the homeopath and the patients in their practices. The data tool used to collect patient data, HomeoStats, is an online interface allowing homeopaths to enter limited information about their patients for the study. Data added included patients’: age, gender, ethnicity, place of birth and current residence, presenting condition(s) as defined by the International Classification of Primary Care-II, and remedy and potency prescribed. All the patient data is de-identified at the point of collection. The population of homeopaths in Australia is an unknown number. The industry is unregulated. However, the Australian Register of Homoeopaths (ARoH) is a self-regulating body defining minimum standard of practice for homeopaths in Australia. Registration with ARoH is used as an essential requirement for homeopaths to participate in this study. The total population of ARoH members is 513 at the start of the survey. The project’s secondary aims include practitioner education and research upskilling through the use of Practitioner Based Research Networks. The primary aim of these networks is to engage practitioners to increase their skills in research and transfer learning into clinical practice, contributing to an increase in capacity for homeopathy in Australia.

Keywords: Clinical practice, homeopathy survey, demographics, Australia, health conditions