Telecebo: Beyond Placebo to an Expanded Concept of Healing

From Bench to Bedside: Converting Placebo Research into Belief Activation

Research on the placebo effect contains important elements that can be harnessed to improve clinical care. This paper proposes a new term, "Belief Activation," to describe the deliberate use of placebo effect tools by both patients and clinicians to catalyze healing. Belief Activation includes, but is not limited to, maximizing patient and practitioner expectations, classical and social conditioning, spirituality and prayer/intention, therapeutic relationship, healing environments, and minimizing the nocebo effect. This paper demonstrates ways in which Belief Activation is a form of evidence-based medicine and seeks to translate knowledge from placebo research into medical practice.

Quantum Physics Principles and Communication in the Acute Healthcare Setting: A Pilot Study

OBJECTIVE

This pilot study explores whether clinician awareness of quantum physics principles could facilitate open communication between patients and providers.

DESIGN

In the spirit of action research, this study was conceptualized with a holistic view of human health, using a mixed method design of grounded theory as an emergent method.

SAMPLING

Instrumentation includes surveys and a focus group discussion with twelve registered nurses working in an acute care hospital setting.

RESULTS

Findings document that the preliminary core phenomenon, energy as information, influences communication in the healthcare environment. Key emergent themes include awareness, language, validation, open communication, strategies, coherence, incoherence and power.

CONCLUSION

Research participants indicate that quantum physics principles provide a language and conceptual framework for improving their awareness of communication and interactions in the healthcare environment. Implications of this pilot study support the feasibility of future research and education on awareness of quantum physics principles in other clinical settings.