Building Research Capacity Let me be more specific with examples of how we are building the capacity to study alternative medicine. This survey represents 21,500 individuals and 9,500 households. It will provide the largest national sample of persons who have used alternative care, and will provide the most accurate estimates yet of the use of complementary and alternative care providers. The second part of our investment in data is support for a national alternative medicine ambulatory care survey conducted by the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. The primary goal of this survey is to provide a comprehensive description of alternative providers' practices.
Providers being surveyed are acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists and naturopaths.
This survey, modeled on a current survey of ambulatory medical care, will provide unprecedented information on the content of care for some of the most common alternative and complementary providers. We also are helping establish the scientific, clinical evidence for complementary and alternative treatments. Under this initiative, we are currently evaluating the use of garlic and silybum marianum in the treatment of certain diseases and conditions. We also are reviewing a number of complementary and alternative medicine topics for future reports, and we are discussing further collaborations with NIH's Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. We need to develop better, more reliable methods for studying and evaluating these therapies, and much research is needed on their effectiveness and outcomes.