National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM)

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Welcome to the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM)

The National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) was established to provide leadership and support for strategically directed research into complementary medicine and translation of evidence into clinical practice and relevant policy to benefit the health of all Australians.

NICM News 2012

Newsletter 12, May 2012
Welcome to our first newsletter for 2012 - Director's Message: Philanthropic support!! It is with great pleasure that we keep you informed of the developments at NICM. Most of you will know we saw a rather heroic end to 2011, with the strong philanthropic support for NICM by the Jacka Foundation of Natural Therapies. The Jacka Foundation has supported the establishment of a Professorial Chair in Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney....Read more...

Cost Effective Applications of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Synopsis report: Australian consumers have embraced the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Two in three Australians have used complementary medicines over the past 12 months and approximately 42% of these use CAMs to prevent or manage chronic, high priority health problems. The growth in use of CAMs over recent years is supported by a growing body of scientific knowledge on their effectiveness and understanding of how they work. However, the widespread use of CAMs...Read more...

Features

Policy Perspectives in Complementary Medicine
NICM symposium NICM hosted a one-day symposium in February 2012 to discuss the influences and drivers of complementary medicine usage and policy development. International guests joined with senior researchers, clinicians, sociologists, industry representatives and government to discuss current trends in CM policy in Australia. We were fortunate to welcome two highly regarded scholars from the UK, Professor George Lewith (Southampton University) and Dr Nicola Gale (Universit...Read more...

Importance of Complementary Medicine
Australians enjoy access to a wide range of complementary medicines and therapies (CM). It’s an industry growing at 6% per annum, with a turnover of $3.1B in 2010, worthy of consideration in the context of total government expenditure on pharmaceuticals of $8.9B in 2010-11.1,2 The scientific evidence is increasingly clear that some CM interventions offer substantial value to our health system in improving clinical outcomes and reducing the burden of chronic disease. CM...Read more...

MedlinePlus: Drugs, Supplements and Herbal Information:
This site has been identified as a Tier 1 information source by the National Prescribing Service in their recent review of information resources for complementary medicines.