NCCAM’s Advisory Council Welcomes Five New Members

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) welcomes five new members to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NACCAM). The council serves as the principal advisory body to NCCAM, the lead Federal agency for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research, and a component of the National Institutes of Health.

The council is composed of physicians, scientists, licensed CAM practitioners, and members of the public who contribute their time and expertise over a four-year term. Members meet three times per year, offering advice and recommendations on prioritization, conduct, and support of CAM research, including research training and communication of evidence-based health information.

New NACCAM members include:

Adam Burke, Ph.D., M.P.H., L.Ac., is a professor in the Department of Health Education and director of the Institute for Holistic Health Studies at San Francisco State University. He received training in traditional East Asian medicine at the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco and the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Sichuan, China, and is a licensed acupuncturist. Dr. Burke served as co-chair of the Alternative and Complementary Health Practices section of the American Public Health Association. He is a professional member of the California Acupuncture Board and formerly served as chair. He was editor-in-chief of The American Acupuncturist, a quarterly publication by the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, and was recently appointed to the Education Working Group of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care.

Gary Curhan, M.D., Sc.D., is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is a practicing nephrologist and a senior investigator at the Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Curhan is an internationally recognized expert in population epidemiology and the epidemiology of kidney disease and has had research funded by NIH over the last 15 years. He has served on numerous local, national, and international committees, including NIH review panels and advisory committees. Dr. Curhan is currently the primary mentor for four junior faculty members who have NIH career development awards.

Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., is vice president, University of Virginia, and dean, University of Virginia School of Medicine. Dr. DeKosky’s clinical research includes differential diagnosis, neuroimaging, and genetic risks for Alzheimer’s disease and trials of new medications. His basic research centers on structural and neurochemical changes in human brains in normal aging and dementia. He was director of an NCCAM-funded national multicenter trial to assess whether Ginkgo biloba can delay onset of dementia in normal elderly adults. Dr. DeKosky was vice-chair of the national board of directors of the Alzheimer’s Association and chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of both the US Alzheimer's Association and Alzheimer’s Disease International.

Susan Folkman, Ph.D., is professor emeritus, Department of Medicine, University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). She was formerly the founding director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF and co-director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. She is internationally recognized for her theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychological stress and coping, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She also was a member of the Institute of Medicine panel on CAM use in the United States, served as chair of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, and the North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine in 2006.Janet Kahn, Ph.D., is executive director of the Integrated Healthcare Policy Consortium; research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont; and faculty preceptor in the Fellowship in Complementary and Alternative and General Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Past appointments were at Tufts University (Community Health Program) and the Wellesley Center for Research on Women. Dr. Kahn has been a massage therapist for 30 years, treating people with chronic pain and exploring the contributions of touch, movement, and mindfulness to human well being. Current research focuses on applications of massage for chronic pain and on use of mindfulness and touch in community-based health care delivery. Kahn served as president of the American Massage Therapy Association Foundation and director of the Massage Therapy Research Consortium.
NCCAM’s mission is to explore complementary and alternative medical practices in the context of rigorous science, train CAM researchers, and disseminate 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 — includes 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 it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

Source: NIH News