ICAM Resource Center

Welcome to the ICAM (Integrative, Complementary and Alternative Medicine) Resource Center!

Our mission is to give health professionals-in-training an understanding of the distinct areas of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including how to integrate useful and proven CAM modalities into holistic, patient-centered clinical practice.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?

• LEARN MORE
  Understand the diverse systems of healing involved in CAM and humanistic medicine
  
  
• ACCESS RESEARCH
  Find information about the efficacy and effectiveness of CAM practices
  
  
• GET INVOLVED
  Enhance medical education for you and your peers
  
  
• FIND TRAINING & FELLOWSHIPS
  Learn ways to train in CAM throughout your career

This information was compiled by AMSA's HuMed Committee and the EDCAM project (Educational Development for Complementary and Alternative Medicine).

ABOUT HUMED AND EDCAM

HuMed has been a vital force in AMSA since 1976, when the committee was created by the AMSA House of Delegates to channel the energies of medical students interested in humanistic and holistic health care. HuMed is focused on well-being: student well-being, patient well-being, and practitioner well-being. HuMed honors the harmony of body, mind, and spirit by nurturing our growth as practitioners of the healing arts and building a community that links us together. HuMed has a long tradition of sponsoring and promoting programs that build and develop humanism in medical education and medical practice.

The EDCAM project (Educational Development for Complementary and Alternative Medicine) is a five-year grant managed by the AMSA Foundation and funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), at the National Institutes of Health. EDCAM's ultimate goal is to provide medical students an introduction to CAM theory and methods in the process of formal medical training, while emphasizing self-care, preventative medicine, and cultural competency.

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Efficacy VS Effectiveness
(From Curtis, PC 2004) Efficacy means that the treatment or substance (surgery, medication, herbal remedy) clearly produces a change in biological or psychosocial function under optimum conditions—after excluding other possible causes for the change. That biological change may be beneficial or deleterious. Effectiveness, on the other hand, refers to the treatment’s success in day-to-day clinical practice. Outcomes of complementary and alternative medicine can be studied by using both efficacy and effectiveness research.

For more information: Curtis, PC. Assessing the Effectiveness of Complementary & Alternative Medicine. In S. Gaylord, S. Norton, P. Curtis (Eds.), The Convergence of Complementary, Alternative & Conventional Health Care: Educational Resources for Health Professionals. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Program on Integrative Medicine, 2004.