Medical syncretism in Yogyakarta: what do the practitioners get?

Background Medical syncretism involves activities conducted by healers who are mixing or blending different treatment strategy and explanatory models, is prevalent in the modern world. In medical pluralism, the pattern demonstrates that biomedicine exerts dominance over alternative medical system. The rigid clinical practice guidelines derived from the current best evidence of systematic reviews and meta-analyses involving many randomised-controlled trials (RCTs), have strictly guided physicians in managing patients’ diseases. In poor neighbourhood of Yogyakarta, it is not only the health seekers who combine biomedicine and traditional medicines, but some biomedical practitioners combined their techniques with alternative or traditional system. This paper aimed to describe why biomedical practitioners practicing medical syncretism; to explore what are their underlying practices; and what are their roles in medical pluralism.