Chronic diseases accounted for 60% of all deaths –
corresponding to a projected 36.65 million deaths worldwide in
2007. 2.8% of the world population suffers from diabetes
mellitus and it may cross 5.4% by the year 2025. Hypertension is
a major burden on health care. Prevalence of lifestyle-related
diseases increases. Low accessibility to and non-affordability of
orthodox medicine by rural dwellers and their need to keep
healthy to be economically productive have led to their
dependence on medicinal plants to remedy afflictions.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) attracts
patronage due to patients’ dissatisfaction with conventional
health care, a desire for treatment and care that work, good
relationship with practitioner, provision of information, a desire
for greater control over one’s health, and a desire for cultural and
philosophical congruence with personal beliefs about health and
illness. Medicinal plants’ threatened sustainability makes
adulteration and species’ substitutions reduce their efficacy,
quality and safety. It was found that CAM practitioners who
participated in this study relied heavily upon knowledge that had
'stood the test of time' (traditional theory and practice) and 'that
which worked' (experientially based knowledge) as the basis for
clinical decision-making. The safe, effective and efficient
delivery of client care is informed primarily by sound clinical
decision making. Body mass index (BMI) plays a significant role
in the process. Strategies that guide practitioners through the
process of decision making may not only foster professional
excellence in CAM practice, but also help to improve the quality
of client care. Clinical decision-making is a complex process that
is reliant on accurate and timely information. Clinicians are
dependent (or should be dependent) on massive amounts of
information and knowledge to make decisions that are in the best
interest of the patient. CAM practitioners of modern time need
currency and timeliness on computations of patients’ body mass
index, waist circumference and body shape combination;
product/therapy data on therapeutic efficacy; product quality and
safety; adverse reactions and herb-drug interactions. This paper
presents a clinical decision diagnosis system supporting CAM
practitioners to effectively treat emerging lifestyle-related
diseases with medicinal plants.
Keywords: body mass index, complementary and alternative
medicine, lifestyle-related diseases, medicinal plants, clinical
decision support syste
