Conference on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is being increasingly used and considered important for the health of many Americans, yet it is vastly underutilized for end-of-life care and for underserved and minority populations. The purpose of the proposed conference is to bring together experts in end-of-life care, CAM, and healthcare disparities to: 1) comprehensively evaluate how CAM approaches can be incorporated fully into conventional end-of-life care; 2) propose effective approaches for delivering these services to underserved and minority populations, and 3) develop a research agenda for clinical studies. The conference objectives regarding CAM, end-of-life care, and health disparities are to: 1) Identify current CAM utilization and practice in conventional end-of-life care. 2) Identify disparities in underserved/minority populations and propose steps to eliminate disparities. 3) Present and evaluate current research on the safety and efficacy of CAM interventions. 4) Identify outcome measures suitable for assessing the effectiveness of CAM interventions. 5) Examine evidence for improving quality of life for palliative care and hospice patients utilizing CAM. 6) Highlight the legal, logistical and professional barriers to incorporating CAM in end-of-life care. 7) Establish an agenda for guiding future research on current and novel CAM approaches for end-of-life care and disseminate this nationally to relevant healthcare and research institutions. 8) Identify resources and strategies for rapidly implementing into conventional end-of-life care CAM approaches proven to be effective by appropriately designed, carefully controlled clinical studies. Members of the organizing committee are from notable institutions including Henry Ford Health System, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Oakland University, and Eastern Michigan University. The committee has clinical research expertise in end-of-life care and CAM, as well as in healthcare disparities. The overall goal of the organizers is to hold the first several large annual conferences (300 attendees expected this year) that will raise national awareness for the importance of creating the most effective and compassionate integrative end-of-life care. This integrative care will incorporate the best practices of conventional medicine with those CAM therapies that are proven effective. As integrative medicine is created, there will be no distinction in medicine between conventional care and CAM, and the best available interventions will allow for dignity and peace for all people at the end of life.