Integrative Medicine is an approach to healthcare that blends conventional medicine with complementary evidence-based treatments and therapies. It is used widely in the United States, yet there are few regionally accredited institutions committed to the initial degree preparation and continuing professional education and training of healthcare professionals and practitioners in this field. This is the knowledge gap that the National University System Center for Integrative Health will fill.
In 1990 Dr. David M. Eisenberg and his colleagues conducted the first survey of the use of integrative treatments and therapies in the United States. When the results were published three years later, the Eisenberg study revealed that one out of every three Americans was using some form of complementary or alternative medicine and that most individuals were not telling their "regular" doctors about their treatments.
In the twenty-year period from 1986-2006, integrative medicine was transformed from a "new age" movement virtually outside the mainstream of medicine to an area of sufficient national attention to warrant its own agency, created in 1998, and called the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).
The National University System Center for Integrative Health is a member of the National University System.
