National Center for Complementary andAlternative Medicine—altmed.od.nih.gov
The Web site of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) includes a message from the director, Stephen E. Straus, M.D., noting that the public's dollar investment in complementary and alternative medicine has climbed well into the billions. To ensure that the investment is a wise one, NCCAM, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, conducts and supports basic and applied research and training. The Web site fulfills another NCCAM goal, to disseminate information on complementary and alternative medicine to practitioners and the public. The site offers fact sheets and a list of frequently asked questions about alternative medicine as well as a comprehensive bibliography configured as a searchable citation index, a list of funded studies, and information about using the NCCAM Clearinghouse. Researchers can download guidelines on grant applications.