Alternative Medicine - White House Commission On Complementary And Alternative Medicine Policy

In March 2000 an executive order established the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy (WHCCAMP) to study and prepare a report and recommendations about public policy measures governing CAM. U.S. President Bill Clinton appointed twenty people representing traditional and CAM interests to serve on WHCCAMP. The commission heard testimony from clinicians, researchers, medical educators, health insurance company and managed care plan representatives, and regulators to learn about CAM use, practices, and integration in traditional health care settings.

In March 2002 WHCCAMP issued its final report, which included the following ten guiding principles:

• Quality health care should support and address the whole person with attention to mind, body, spirit, and environment.
• WHCCAMP endorses the use of rigorous scientific methods to evaluate the safety and efficacy of CAM practices and products.
• Health care should support individuals' innate abilities for self-healing.
• All people are entitled to responsive, personalized health care that is consistent with preferences and respects their individuality.
• Health care consumers must be free to choose from an assortment of safe, effective treatments and a variety of qualified, accountable health care practitioners.
• Quality health care emphasizes prevention, health promotion, and self-care programs.
• Patients, practitioners, and researchers must work together to create quality health care delivery and respect the diversity of all health care traditions.
• Health care professionals and consumers should be taught about prevention, healthy lifestyles, and self-healing.
• Evidence-based recommendations about CAM products and services must be effectively communicated in a timely manner.
• Informed consumers and other stakeholders in the community must be involved in the process of establishing priorities for health care research and policy.