The Complementary and Integrative Medicine Consult Service Functions The COIMCS provides the following functions: 1. Integrative Medicine Clinical Consultation at the NIH Clinical Center 2. A professional Credentialing Program for specified Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practitioners engaging in clinical activities at the NIH Clinical Center. 3. A CAM Educational Program for patients, families and health care professionals 4. An Integrative Medicine Consult Service Research Program. 1. COIMCS consultation The Integrative Medicine Clinical Consult Service will offer the following types of clinical consultations: 1. Information regarding diverse complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, approaches and interactions with conventional therapies 2. Recommendations regarding compatibility of previously initiated CAM treatments with NIH/CC specific clinical and research protocol needs 3. Evaluations for the initiation of new treatment with one or more CAM modalities for the management of clinical problems that arise in the setting of clinical research in the clinical center. Consultative collaboration is envisioned with Clinical Center services offering CAM modality interventions, e.g. Rehabilitation Medicine, Pain/Palliative Care, and Nursing. 2. Professional Credentialing Program There is currently no mechanism in place for the credentialing and granting of CAM-specific privileges for NIH health care practitioners with CAM training and expertise who are not housed within the Clinical Centers Nursing or Rehabilitation Medicine Departments. The COIMCS Chief will create and chair a CAM Credentialing Committee, consisting of the Chief of the Integrative Medicine Consult Service and representatives from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Pain and Palliative Care Service and the Department of Nursing and ad hoc members to be named by the COIMCS Chief as deemed appropriate. 3. The Integrative Medicine Consult Service Educational Program The COIMCS will develop an Educational Program to NIH staff, patients and their families on topics of CAM and Integrative Medicine. The program will be developed by the COIMCS Chief in collaboration with CC departments and NIH Institutes and Centers, e.g. the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS). It will also reach out to national and international experts in the field as well as patient advocacy groups for advice, contribution and participation. Educational activities may include lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences. Staff educational activities will be developed first and will later complemented by patient and family education. 4. The Integrative Medicine Consult Service Research Program Taking advantage of the unique setting of the NIH as a premier research institution, all activities of the COIMCS clinical consultation will be structurally embedded in a clinical and translational research paradigm. Clinical consultation will be structured as a research intervention, including obtaining informed consent, monitoring and tracking of clinical interventions and collection of clinical research outcome parameters as well as correlating diagnostic and laboratory studies.
