Institute Of Medicine $1 Mil. CAM Study Sponsors Include ODS, NCCAM
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements will contribute $100,000 to a $1 mil., two-year Institute of Medicine study commissioned to explore complementary and alternative medicine policy issues such as product regulation and insurance coverage/reimbursement
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NIH's Office of Dietary Supplements will contribute $100,000 to a $1 mil., two-year Institute of Medicine study commissioned to explore complementary and alternative medicine policy issues such as product regulation and insurance coverage/reimbursement. The National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine has offered $49,000 in support of the study, which is being funded by 16 NIH bodies and the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. IoM began recruiting a panel of approximately 16 experts "from a broad range of CAM and conventional disciplines, such as behavioral medicine, internal medicine, nursing, epidemiology, pharmacology" and education on Oct. 1, NCCAM said Oct. 21. NCCAM Director Stephen Straus, MD, announced preliminary plans for the IoM study earlier this year (1 (Also see "Institute Of Medicine CAM Study Targeted For 2004 Completion" - Pink Sheet, 3 Jun, 2002.), p. 7). Once IoM has completed recruitment, which should take several months, the panel will assess research findings on CAM, hold workshops and invite speakers to aid in its evaluation of the field. NCCAM noted the panel "will not conduct new surveys of the public regarding CAM use," but rather analyze existing data. Questions the panel will seek to answer include "what are the methodological difficulties in evaluating some CAM therapies" and "what is the current situation for coverage of CAM by insurers and other third parties," NCCAM said. IoM Senior Program Officer Lyla Hernandez, who serves on the institute's Board on Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, is leading the study. NCCAM said the IoM study will help guide the center's research priorities and "should serve to complement the recommendations" made by the White House CAM Commission, which released its report in March (2 (Also see "CAM Web Site Standards Board Proposed By White House Commission" - Pink Sheet, 1 Apr, 2002.), p. 5). Although the goals of the IoM study appear similar to material covered by the White House panel, NCCAM maintained the commission "had a broad mandate...to address issues that may impede CAM's integration into mainstream medicine." The IoM study, on the other hand, will employ "impartial experts [to] provide...a conceptual framework surrounding the policy and research issues that will help guide NCCAM's future decisions on research and relevant research policy issues." |