A world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine.
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A world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine.
Read More“When half of the population uses complementary and alternative medicine in one form or another, the research activity in this area must be comparable with academic medicine,” says Professor Vinjar Fønnebø. He is the director of the National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine (NAFKAM) and President for the 5th International Congress on Complementary Medicine Research, ICCMR 2010. The conference is scheduled for late May next year.
Professor Fønnebø, can you make a general comment about the significance of this annual international conference on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for researchers and people in general?
“This conference is an arena where researchers can present their latest findings and hone their ideas with each other in direct dialogue. This stimulates the researchers to use their creative abilities to the utmost in order to find answers to relevant problems. For people in general, this research exchange will ensure that all kinds of treatments will be based on increasingly more systematic knowledge.”
What does it mean for NAFKAM to organise this conference?
“With this event, NAFKAM, the University of Tromsø and Norway will consolidate their position as one of the world’s leading research centres within the field of CAM. I am glad we took this challenge, which I am sure we will solve in the best way possible.”
How many delegates do you expect to attend, and from what parts of the world will they come?
“The event in Tromsø will be the fifth annual conference. This annual arena is now a permanent feature on the researchers’ calendars, and one which they are fully conscious of. We expect more than 500 delegates representing every continent in the world, with the exception of Antarctica.”
Your website states that the world-renowned American doctor, Dr Andrew Weil, will hold a lecture open to everyone who is interested. What is Dr Andrew Weil known for and what will he convey to the conference delegates?
“Andrew Weil is possibly the person who has made the largest contribution to the fact that US health care to an increasing extent is adapting to so-called integrative medicine. This approach involves doctors to a higher degree than previously in emphasizing all aspects of the patient’s life while planning treatment. This can, for example, include an interest in social conditions, diet, exercise habits, sexual conduct, spiritual interests and other habits in addition to the conventional information gathered about the signs and symptoms of the illness. Integrative medicine acknowledges that all these factors are of significance when planning a course of treatment, and this can also result in alternative therapies being recommended more often. Dr. Weil will be an important spokesperson for how this therapy approach can actually be implemented in practice. He is also well known from numerous media appearances, for example Larry King Live on CNN and the Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Is participating in this conference of interest to anyone other than researchers in complementary and alternative medicine?
”Absolutely! Employees in the public health service, politicians and bureaucrats in the health sector and CAM practitioners are just some of the groups who can receive a first-hand update of this important field.”
Which alternative therapies are the main subjects of research, and which ones will be represented during the conference?
“The international research has a broad focus, but I would say the largest activity is taking place in the fields of acupuncture and herbal medicine/nutritional supplements. Research will also be presented at the conference on the use of CAM therapies and studies on research methodology.”
Can you explain why you have chosen the following title for the conference: Relevant research for the chronically ill?
“The majority of patients who seek out CAM practitioners are suffering from more or less serious chronic diseases. It’s appropriate to focus the research efforts and attention at the conference around these groups of diseases since we know from studies that so many are using alternative therapies.”
What do you regard as the greatest challenges for research in the field of CAM?
“In competition with other health research, the greatest challenge is of course to generate sufficient financial resources for this type of research. In addition, a substantial amount of work on research methodology still remains in this field. This lacking methodology means that the research carried out to date can only partly shed light on the clinical practice in the same way as, for example, pharmaceutical research can.”
According to the critics of CAM, there is no documentation at all that any of this has any effect over and above the placebo effect. How do you respond to this?
“If you are only interested in the effect of a therapy isolated from all other therapeutic efforts you make, it is correct that not much of CAM is “documented” as such. But this constitutes one of the research methodology problems that this field has not considered carefully enough previously. What we usually call placebo covers many approaches which are consciously used within CAM to treat the patient in combination with, for example, acupuncture needles. Consequently, excluding the effects of these other factors from an assessment of CAM is not right. Much research work remains before one can say with reasonable assurance that CAM as a system is documented or not.”
What hopes do you have for ICCMR 2010?
“I hope the conference will be a new important step on the path to a solid knowledge base for CAM. When half the population annually seeks CAM in one form or another, it is extremely important that the research activity around these therapies can be comparable with academic medicine.”