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1Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA. emanheimer@compmed.umm.edu
Complementary Therapies in Medicine
|March 17, 2004
Summary
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) use is rising, but high-quality clinical trial evidence is lacking. Research efforts are underway to provide this crucial data for patients and healthcare providers.
Area of Science:
- Integrative Medicine
- Clinical Trials Research
- Evidence-Based Practice
Background:
- Increasing public use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies.
- Significant gap in accessible, high-quality clinical trial evidence for CAM efficacy.
- Healthcare providers and patients need reliable data to make informed decisions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the shortage of clinical trial evidence for CAM therapies.
- To identify, review, and disseminate rigorous scientific summaries of CAM clinical trials.
- To support the evidence-based integration of CAM into healthcare.
Main Methods:
- Systematic identification of published clinical trials on alternative therapies.
- Summarization of trial findings into scientific reviews.
- Dissemination of reviews to the public and healthcare professionals.
Main Results:
- Ongoing efforts to build a body of evidence for CAM therapies.
- Development of rigorous scientific reviews based on clinical trial data.
- Establishment of a dissemination strategy for public and provider access.
Conclusions:
- The University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine is actively generating evidence for CAM.
- A National Institutes of Health grant supports the expansion of this critical research.
- The work aims to bridge the gap between CAM use and scientific validation.