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• Key barriers to CIH providers' involvement in public health responses involve attitudes and awareness rather than a lack of specific skills.
• Education of CIH providers often does not strongly emphasize public health.
• There is a disconnect between CIH and public health; CIH focuses on the health of the individual, whereas public health focuses on the health of the community. Furthermore, there are few settings where CIH and public health professionals are colocated.
• CIH providers have faced economic challenges both before and during the pandemic, which may have been a barrier to many of them becoming involved in public health efforts.
• Attitudes about vaccination can be a barrier—not just vaccine hesitancy among some CIH providers, but also a perception by public health professionals that vaccine hesitancy among CIH professionals is widespread.
• Most CIH professionals practice in isolated practices and not in teams, whereas public health is overwhelmingly practiced as a team effort.

Complementary and integrative health (CIH) providers, such as chiropractors and naturopathic doctors, have been an underutilized public health asset in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report seeks to inform how they can be better integrated into future responses to public health emergencies.

The authors convened an expert panel of ten CIH and public health practitioners and researchers for a daylong discussion of how the CIH workforce could be better mobilized during future crises. In this report, the authors summarize the key barriers identified in the discussion and make recommendations on how they can be overcome.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Methods

• Chapter Three

  Results

• Chapter Four

  Discussion

• Chapter Five

  Conclusion

• Appendix A

  Panel Members

• Appendix B

  Agenda for the Panel Meeting