The document was produced in close cooperation with the Italian Medical Council FNOMCeO, along the lines of a previous similar agreement in Tuscany and proposed by the interregional Technical Group for Complementary Medicine. It was the main hurdle to pass on the way to a national regulation. Now it is up to the State-Regions Conference to approve the agreement, probably early this year.

The agreement stipulates that doctors specialised in one of these therapies should have taken a minimum of 500 hours of theoretical and practical training over 3 years, in addition to individual study and tutoring. Also learning objectives, teaching methods, teacher training and transition rules are part of the agreement.

The assessment of qualifications for admission to the registers will be entrusted to special committees of experts nominated by the Medical Council. The accreditation of teaching institutions (public or private) will be issued by the Regions.

There are more than 20,000 doctors in Italy practising homeopathy, acupuncture and herbal medicine, while around 20% of the population use these therapies.