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Vol 11 - Issue 4

Technology and Innovation

List of Articles

From Interventions to Non-Pharmacological Strategies: Introduction to the Typologies of Health Prevention and Patient Care

Estelle Guerry

Non-pharmacologic interventions, or NPIs, these non-pharmacologic, non-invasive, targeted and evidence-based interventions, are currently experiencing a significant boom in the field of patient care. This boom is due to the following situation: chronic diseases are on the rise and conventional – drug-based - medicine cannot always meet patients’ needs. Non-pharmacological interventions are therefore part of a climate of social change brought about by the multiple crises of the present and are being used by new ways of thinking in care. The aim is to determine the scope of an NPI or NPS (non-pharmacological strategy) in order to question its limitations and potential for patient care through a theoretical and practical definitional approach that draws on the perspectives of researchers and practitioners.

Non-pharmacological interventions (NPI): From research to health practice

Grégory Ninot

This article presents the definition of science-based personalized and targeted prevention and care protocols, non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), proposed by an international multidisciplinary scientific society, the Non-Pharmacological Intervention Society. It defines the scope of these health practices based on a standardized ethical and scientific evaluation framework developed over two years with more than 1000 people. Since 2024, this framework has enabled the creation of a universal heritage of intangible prevention and care protocols in a digital library, the NPIS Registry.

Mindfulness as a non-pharmacological intervention: the challenges for the health sector

Anne-Laure Fraga

Mindfulness as a non-pharmacological intervention complements conventional medicine in the field of integrative health, as it is both a treatment protocol and a prevention protocol. It allows us to look at the person as a whole and not simply as a patient suffering from their disease. Many healthcare facilities are now using it in supportive care, in cases of chronic illness and pain, and because of its impact on the efficiency of organizations and the importance placed on care. In recent years, mindfulness has also been integrated into training courses for leadership development in organizations. Its use in the healthcare sector is therefore an important topic, and this article describes the expected impact of these measures.

Use of non-drug therapies in Malaysia: Pluralism versus integration of traditional and complementary medicines

Brigitte Sébastia

Malaysia has a wide variety of traditional medicines stemming from its rich ethnic heritage, which have gradually been joined by more or less globalized complementary medicines. The practice of these medicines, which largely consist of manual therapies, is important for investigating their function as substitutes for drug interventions. This article addresses this issue by showing that the therapeutic model proposed by the Malaysian Holistic and Herbal Organization is based on a subtle combination of non-drug practices from T&C medicine, taking into account the various aspects of the disease and the patient, and promoting demedicalization. Conversely, the integrative model developed by the government, which is too reductive in its form, can only partially compensate for the strong medicalization inherent in biomedicine.

Changing the vision of disability: hyperpersonalization in the service of healing in the orthopedic context. A new field in non-drug strategies

Marion Daparo

The action of “taking care” is one of the oldest gestures made towards others. Beyond health and well-being, it is appropriate to broaden the scope of these practices to the various dimensions of care with the very idea of understanding, in its unities and diversities, a variation of situations passing from the most common acts. These initiatives touch upon the broadest ethical, political and prospective issues. Thus, the implementation of non-medication care strategies prompts us to question and wonder how the knowledge and practices of “taking care” can be re-examined in a multicultural world. To do this, it is a question of studying the conditions for applying these strategies so that they become key skills for a more sustainable and united world.