Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practitioners often receive very little training in the critical evaluation of the biomedical literature and evidence based clinical practice. To improve these skills, CAM training programs need to increase the quality and quantity of research curriculum, incorporate evidence based medicine into didactic and clinical teaching, and involve their faculty in scholarly research. The School of Naturopathic Medicine of Bastyr University proposes a Naturopathic Physician Research Education Project (N-PREP) in response to the program announcement 04-097 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. N-PREP will greatly enhance the research curriculum within the training program for naturopathic physicians and will provide opportunities for advanced research training and clinical faculty exchange for many of the faculty members from the School of Naturopathic Medicine. This proposal aims to 1) Educate naturopathic medical students how to use an evidence-based approach to evaluate biomedical research literature and to apply this information in their clinical decision-making in practice;2) Promote an evidence-based research culture among the faculty of Bastyr University's School of Naturopathic Medicine;and 3) Increase research collaborations between Bastyr University and the University of Washington faculty. To achieve these aims, Bastyr University has partnered with the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM). The partnership between Dr. Raskin, Dean of the School of Naturopathic Medicine, and Dr. Schneeweiss, Professor of Family Medicine and Principal Investigator on the UWSOM R25 to integrate CAM into the UWSOM curriculum, is an excellent combination of expertise in naturopathic medicine and medical curricular modification, which will result in the achievement of the proposed aims. Outcomes of the project will include: a substantially revised curriculum of the required research methods course;new curriculum for a critical evaluation of the literature course and two advanced research electives;twelve Bastyr clinical faculty participating in a clinical exchange with UW physicians to observe and learn how to incorporate evidence based medicine into clinical teaching;a minimum of three Bastyr faculty members participating in a year long research experience that may include coursework at the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine and hands on experience with a UW research mentor;the creation of Communities of Learning and Integrated Practice for faculty to discuss how to integrate research into didactic teaching and clinical practice, and how to build research at Bastyr;Bastyr faculty attendance at UW research seminar series;and an annual research conference to bring together faculty from Bastyr and UW to stimulate discussion about naturopathic medical research and collaboration.
| Long, Cynthia R; Ackerman, Deborah L; Hammerschlag, Richard et al. (2014) Faculty development initiatives to advance research literacy and evidence-based practice at CAM academic institutions. J Altern Complement Med 20:563-70 |
| McCarty, Rachelle L; Fenn, Robin; Gaster, Barak et al. (2011) Building bridges: qualitative assessment of a clinical faculty exchange between a naturopathic and an allopathic medical training program. Explore (NY) 7:249-53 |
