The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health has unveiled a new online resource, designed to give healthcare providers easy access to evidence-based information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). This new resource seeks to provide health care providers with the tools necessary to learn about the various CAM practices and products and be better able to discuss the safety and effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine with their patients.
The portal on the NCCAM website at nccam.nih.gov is tailored to fit the needs of all healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses and nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and CAM providers. It includes information on the safety and efficacy of a range of common health practices that lie outside of mainstream medicine - natural products, such as dietary supplements, herbs, and probiotics, as well as mind-body practices such as meditation, chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage.
This resource was developed based on a series of NCCAM-sponsored focus groups where health care providers identified the need for an evidence-based, one-stop place to help answer their patients' questions on CAM. With this need in mind, NCCAM developed a resource that provides reliable, objective, and evidenced-based information on CAM, including links to relevant clinical practice guidelines; safety and effectiveness information; links to systematic reviews; summaries of research studies; scientific literature searches; and programmes for continuing education credit; and patient fact sheets.
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