Utilising and promoting public health and health services research in complementary and alternative medicine: The founding of NORPHCAM

Promoting CAM research: Encouraging a wider context: The exponential growth in the use and practice of CAM has fuelled a drive to advance the evidence-base for these medicines to allow consumers to make informed choices about their health. Indeed, we are currently witnessing an exciting expansion in complementary and alternative medicine research and any reader who has conducted mainstream database searches over the last few years to locate literature on the broad topic of CAM will no doubt be familiar with this expansion - every year seems to produce an even greater number of newly published papers in the area. While such expansion is to some extent characterised by a reasonable level of disciplinary breadth and collaboration it is nevertheless the case that the majority of empirical research and commentary is focused squarely upon assessing clinical efficacy through the use of randomised controlled trials and related methodologies and designs. This is undoubtedly an essential, worthwhile pursuit and it is true that much further work in this area is still needed - we are still moving towards refining instruments and designs and gathering the evidence from such inquiry. Nevertheless, we may be in danger of failing to maximise the role and insights from a broader range and mix of methods and paradigms. In order to fully understand CAM we must broaden our approach beyond simply asking questions of clinical effectiveness, to include methods and research perspectives from neighbouring traditions including public health (encouraging a research focus upon community self care, CAM use and wider population based health issues) and health services research (encouraging a research focus upon investigating CAM and integrative services and the systems in which they are provided). It is essential that we examine the economic, political, social and cultural contexts of contemporary CAM in order to help inform and direct consumers, practitioners (both CAM and conventional), health care managers, Governments and health policy-makers in their decision-making, behaviours and interventions. This broadening of scope and the need to promote its benefits to a wider audience is a core driving force behind the creation of a research network to focus exclusively upon the public health and health services research of CAM. Introducing the Network of Researchers in the Public Health of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NORPHCAM): a mission statement and program In March 2008 a number of colleagues and I (from across a number of countries, related disciplines and with a range of methodological expertise) met up at the third International Congress on Complementary Medicine Research held in Sydney, Australia. The Congress attracted an extensive field of CAM researchers and the mix and breadth of presentations and discussions was highly stimulating. It was encouraging to hear of the plethora of empirical studies and programs designed and being undertaken to address important research questions that need to be asked of contemporary CAM. Nevertheless, a number of us observed that while public health research (a primary focus upon community self care, CAM use and wider population based health issues) and health service research (a primary focus upon investigating health services and the systems in which they are provided) was present at the Congress on a broader level there is a pressing need for a more formal and systematic promotion of current work, future directions and research capacity building in this area. The Network of Researchers in the Public Health of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NORPHCAM) has been established to