Traditional, Indigenous Systems of Medicine.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is seeking developmental studies to establish the methodological feasibility and strengthen the scientific rationale for proceeding to full-scale clinical trials on the use of traditional, indigenous systems of medicine as practiced in the United States.

Potential studies might include 1) quantitative research (case studies, interviews) to describe diagnostic and treatment approaches and explore patient and health care provider preferences and beliefs; 2) diagnoses, including comparisons with those of other traditional indigenous systems of medicine as well as with conventional biomedicine; 3) studies to refine the intervention strategy; 4) studies to refine the control strategy, including comparisons of different types of controls and validation of blinding procedures; 5) studies to refine the target population and develop adequate recruitment procedures; 6) studies to develop realistic protocols; 7) studies to establish the clinical usefulness of commonly used assessment procedures, especially quality-of-life measures, as well as psychosocial, functional, and physiological measures; and 8) collection of preliminary data for establishing measures of efficacy and safety for subsequent sample size calculations.

Additional information is available on the Internet at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/ pa-files/PA-00-041.html.

Contact: Marguerite Evans, NCCAM, Building 31, Room 5B58, Bethesda, MD 20892 USA, 301-402-5860, fax: [phone], e-mail: me16o@ nih.gov. Reference: PA Number PA-00-041