The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering a new online Continuing Education Series on complementary and alternative medicine.


This lecture series offers health care professionals and the public the opportunity to learn more about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies and the state-of-the-science about them through video lectures by some of the leading experts in this field. Health care professionals can earn Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Users who complete all the test chapters can generate an online certificate. The CME series is free and can be viewed at nccam.nih.gov/videolectures.
“With 62 percent of the American public using CAM, from dietary supplements to chiropractic, there is not only a great need to inform conventional and CAM health care professionals, but also to provide the public with information they can use to make decisions about their health care options,” said Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM Director. “This CME series is a valuable addition to the other resources on the NCCAM Web site.”
CAM is a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. Examples are dietary supplements, hypnosis, chiropractic manipulation, and acupuncture. The series currently has six different lectures. Each lecture includes an overview of the CAM area, a review of research results and ongoing research, and discussion of the historical and practice perspectives.
CAM topics covered are:
Overview of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Herbs and Other Dietary Supplements
Mind-Body Medicine
Acupuncture: An Evidence-Based Assessment
Manipulative and Body-Based Therapies: Chiropractic and Spinal Manipulation
Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Aging
Each lecture includes:
A video lecture by a scientific expert
The lecture transcript
An online test that can be taken to receive CME credits (credits for nurses will be added soon)
Additional resource links
NCCAM is dedicated to exploring complementary and alternative healing practices in the context of rigorous science, training complementary and alternative medicine researchers, and disseminating authoritative information to the public and professionals. For additional information, call NCCAM’s Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCAM Web site at nccam.nih.gov.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation’s Medical Research Agency — is comprised of 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
For our continuing education course for licensed practitioners of acupuncture and traditional oriental medicine, visit our shopping cart’s Ethics for Practitioners of Acupuncture and Traditional Oriental Medicine: Learning Practice Boundaries.