International Collaborations to Enhance the Science of CAM: Past, Present and Fut

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This conference grant proposes a one-day symposium sponsored by the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR), to be held the day before the North American Research Conference on Complementary & Integrative Medicine (NARCCIM): Collaboration to Promote Scientific Discovery & Health. The ISCMR symposium theme has been harmonized with the main conference, but in contrast to the latter's predominant North American focus, our symposium will explicitly highlight international collaborations, and unique basic science approaches being developed on other continents. International CAM research meetings now take place every three years, as part of an agreed upon rotation among European, Asian, and North American venues; NARCCIM is the north American component of this rotation. ISCMR helped to coordinate the emergence of this rotation, and participates/collaborates in each annual meeting with the main local sponsors. In addition, ISCMR board representatives and other active members of the Society are participating on various NARCCIM committees, due both to the explicit decision of NARCCIM to seek ISCMR input (e.g. on program and scientific review committees), and to the participation of ISCMR members in CAHCIM activities. The symposium proposed here supplements the NARCCIM in three important ways. First, the morning plenary focuses on the types of multidisciplinary cross-national research studies that are made strong by patterns of diversity that do not exist within individual countries. Secondly, the afternoon plenary, highlighting novel biomarkers and mechanisms of action of CAM therapies emerging from research in locales other than North America, offers the potential for building new collaborations and developing new research directions. Finally, the interactive afternoon session will have conference speakers, their research team members and conference attendees join special interest groups to identify critical next steps (synthesis papers, synthetic workshops, and collaborative research projects), prepare brief outlines of those consensus concepts, and present the best back to the group. This activity is designed to enhance the likelihood of new collaborations and research directions resulting from the symposium. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This symposium, "International Collaborations to Enhance the Science of CAM: Past, Present, and Future," is being organized and sponsored by the International Society for Complementary Medicine Research (ISCMR). The ISCMR symposium will be held on May 12, 2009, as a one-day pre-conference meeting in Minneapolis MN to the North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine (NARCCIM). NARCCIM has the theme: "Collaboration to Promote Scientific Discovery and Health". The ISCMR program and theme were designed to harmonize with the main conference, and to showcase significant international collaborative research. The symposium includes 8 plenary speakers arriving from North America, South America, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition, it provides a structured opportunity for networking to develop new research initiatives that exploit the advantages of international collaboration. As the number of scientists involved in research on complementary and integrative medicine grows around the world and the science matures, the need for and the value of network-building also increases.