A national approach to teaching complementary and alternative medicine in Canadian medical schools: The CAM in UME project.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is increasingly used in North America. Most patients combine conventional and CAM treatments, however, The widespread use of CAM is not without concern. The growing use of CAM is drawing more and more attention from individuals involved in medical education. We present an overview of a national initiative to integrate CAM in undergraduate medical education (UME) programs in Canada. The aim of this initiative, called the CAM in UME Project, is to facilitate high quality and balanced teaching of CAM related issues in UME. The project's activities include the development of (1) CAM-oriented competencies, (2) peer-reviewed summaries of topics relevant to CAM, (3) a searchable repository of teaching and learning resources, and (4) a guide for the development, implementation and sustainability of CAM curriculum. All these are housed on the CAM in UME Web site (http://www.caminume.ca) which is freely accessible to interested individuals. It appears that teaching students about natural health products, an important component of CAM, would be a natural fit for pharmacologists based at medical schools.