Abstract

Americans use CAM therapies now more than ever before, yet there is a shortage of accessible high-quality evidence from clinical trials to show which CAM therapies work best and for which conditions. The need for such evidence is great, not only among people with serious, chronic health conditions, but also among healthcare providers, who often require clinical trial evidence before recommending a medical treatment. For the last few years, the University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine has been working steadily to meet this need for information by identifying published clinical trials of alternative therapies, summarizing these into rigorous scientific reviews, and disseminating these reviews to the general public and to healthcare providers. In May 2003, the Center was awarded a large 4-year research grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to support and extend this important work.