Our Mission
We are dedicated to exploring complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science, training cam researchers, and disseminating authoritative information to the public and professional communities.
Our Vision
nccam will advance research to yield insights and tools derived from complementary and alternative medicine practices to benefit the health and well-being of the public, while enabling an informed public to reject ineffective or unsafe practices.
Priority Setting
nccam's intent in managing its portfolio in the future is to concentrate on efforts likely to yield the greatest impact on the health and well-being of people at every stage of life, using the following set of master health goals as important, but not exclusive, selection criteria:
- Enhance physical and mental health and wellness
- Manage pain and other symptoms, disabilities, and functional impairment
- Have a significant impact on a specific disease or disorder
- Prevent disease and empower individuals to take responsibility for their health
- Reduce selected health problems of specific populations
Toward those goals, we also see as high priority the need to increase research geared to elucidating mechanisms of action underlying cam practices. Indeed, the plan states as a guiding principle that "When there is evidence that a specific cam practice works, it is a high priority to study why it works." This is in keeping with the importance of supplying consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions on their health care.
The Short and Long View
Our new plan presents priority goals and objectives in research, research training, outreach, and in the area of governance, indicating what we hope to accomplish in the short and long term. There is some overlap—objectives that are common to several areas—and our aims are very ambitious. nccam does not expect to achieve all its objectives in the next 5 years; some will be completed, while others will only have started. By establishing these aims as nccam's priorities, however, nccam is informing the public that these are the directions we have chosen to follow in the years ahead. These priorities will be widely publicized and regularly updated to reflect research advances, new needs, and opportunities. To facilitate nccam's efforts, the Center will again look to its partners at the nih and beyond for collaborations for the mutual benefit of shared resources and intellectual expertise in many areas of common interest. In addition, nccam is encouraging its stakeholders to aid the Center in building resources—tools, technologies, equipment, models, databases, and the like—as well as recruiting the diverse intellectual capital needed to conduct cam research.
