More than 100 million citizens in the EU are regular users of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), but there is a significant lack of funding and scientific co-operation in this area compared to conventional medicine.

Now, for the benefit of the citizens’ health and safety, a European co-operation project will create an EU wide “road map” that encompasses the preconditions for future research within Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in Europe. The project called „CAMbrella” will receive about  € 1.5 million over 3 years, and the kick-off was in January 2010.

“Our objective is to build a network of European research institutes in complementary medicine, fostering international cooperation. CAMbrella’s 8 working groups will focus on terminology, legal regulation, patients’ needs, the role of CAM treatments in healthcare systems, and research methodology” says project coordinator  Dr. Wolfgang Weidenhammer, Centre of Naturheilkunde, Technische Universität, Munich, Germany.

“We will develop a comprehensive understanding of the current status of CAM in Europe, which will serve as a starting point for future research activities”.

The research group consists of 16 scientific partner organisations from 12 European countries.  The project is supported by an Advisory Board, which consists of members of the relevant stakeholder organisations including patients, practitioners, providers and consumers.

“In 2008, the European Commission for the first time announced a sponsorship in the field of complementary medicine - in the context of the 7th Framework Programme . The funding of CAMbrella crowns the efforts of numerous European initiatives and organisations for getting complementary medicine into an European focus” says Dr. Weidenhammer.

www.cambrella.eu
For further information, please contact:
Dr.Bettina Reiter, Akademie für Ganzheitsmedizin,
reiter@gamed.or.at

Dr. Jennifer Hunter of the National Institute for Complementary Medicine in
Australia is in the process of mapping out initiatives to establish Integrated
Medicine Centres all around the world. Could those of you with an interest
in this field and active in establishing such centres please contact Jennifer Hunter
signaling willingness to give more information? This would be much appreciated.

Jennifer’s contact: drjen@drjenniferhunter.com

CAM researchers, practitioners and policy makers in Europe now have their own organisational platform. Saturday, 8th November, The European Chapter of “International Society for Complementary Medicine Research” (ISCMR) was launched.

The history of this initiative goes back to the establishment of Euricam in 2004, a group with the purpose of setting up a research project for FP7. 40 people were present at the meeting, that took place during The European Congress of Integrative Medicine in Berlin.

The participants discussed among other subjects the levels of membership - should it be possible to be a member of the European organisation without being a member of the global ISCMR? No, was the answer.

The initial steering committee will continue until the next annual meeting, which probably will take place in Berlin again, in the fall of 2009. Members of the steering committee are: Harald Wallach (UK), Wolfgang Weidenhammer (Ger), Curina Guethlin (Ger) and Ursula Wolf (Ch).

To insure continuity, half of the committee will be elected in even-numbered years, the rest in odd-numbered years. The final number of members in the steering committee has not yet been decided.

The visions include co-operation about research, mapping of CAM in Europe, and preparing for FP8. A website under www.iscmr.org will be launched in the beginning of 2009.

If you consider being a member of ISCMR, go to http://www.iscmr.org/membership/membership.html#howto

Fur further details please contact corina.guethlin@uniklinik-freiburg.de