Training in Complementary and Alternative Medical Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Patient utilization of a broad spectrum of Complementary and Alternative Medical (CAM) therapies is at the highest level in the recent history of this country and continues to increase. However, there is a lack of adequate research providing accurate information to illuminate and validate the efficacy, economy, and safety of CAM therapies. A successful medical system provides patients and physicians with the ability to choose from the largest possible armamentarium of therapeutic and preventative health care regimens that have been proven to be both medically efficacious and cost effective. To continue to move toward such a system, it is vitally important that the panoply of CAM therapeutic regimens be validated scientifically. This will proceed most quickly and efficiently with an interdisciplinary and collaborative research effort carried out by scientists trained both in both rigorous research methodology and in CAM. Bastyr University, the nation's leading CAM training institution, is submitting this competing continuation application to continue our successful postdoctoral and predoctoral training program for scientists who desire careers as research scholars and clinical investigators in the field of CAM. Over the past 3 years, this training program at Bastyr has resulted in the successful development of multi-disciplinary collaborations among researchers and allied health professionals at CAM and allopathic institutions, and has trained 8 postdoctoral fellows and 18 short-term predoctoral trainees in CAM-related research. We currently propose to extend this successful program for another 5 years to train an additional 8 postdoctoral fellows (4 ND, 2 PhD and 2 MD) for three years each, and thirty predoctoral students in short term summer positions. Training opportunities are available from 19 faculty members, representing four preeminent research and educational institutions in Washington state. We have assembled mentors with acknowledged expertise in their fields, with divergent enough backgrounds to provide a breadth of training experiences, and with a common interest in the efficacy of CAM in the treatment of chronic disease, particularly cancer, obesity and Type 2 diabetes. We believe that the combined expertise and commitment of these individuals, in the context of the superlative research environment in Seattle, creates a unique opportunity to successfully train scientists who will be able to bring traditional research methods to bear upon CAM-related research topics. By centering CAM research training at an institution with a mission of training CAM practitioners and researchers and enhancing collaborations with mainstream biomedical research institutions, this application addresses a critical and strategic need of building resources and infrastructure to allow for cutting-edge research on CAM modalities.