First National Institute for
Complementary Medicine in Australia
Minister for Health and Ageing, Tony Abbott, assisted by Federal Spokesperson for Western Sydney, Pat Farmer, made the announcement that the Australian Government would provide 4 million US dollars to help establish a National Institute for Complementary Medicine in the University of Western Sydney on 15 Jun 2007. This was in addition to $5 million in National Health and Medical Research Council grants for complementary medicine announced last year. This $4 million investment in UWS builds on the $50 million already provided by the Commonwealth Government for the construction of the new School of Medicine.
With an emphasis on clinical trials and studies on herbal medicines, the institute will develop national priorities for complementary medical research and will coordinate work on these priorities with other research bodies. The institute will also support postdoctoral training to ensure that the industry has the research personnel it needs to expand, and will provide research findings to the medical community and general public as well.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics show that Australians spend about $1 billion annually on complementary and alternative medicines, including vitamin supplements, homeopathic medicines and traditional Asian and Indigenous medicines. “Two in every three Australians use complementary medicine, with in excess of 15 million consultations with an alternative health practitioner each year. Australians spend four times more on complementary medicines than on pharmaceutical drugs.
Professor Alan Bensoussan, Director of the UWS CompleMED Research Centre, (www.uws.edu.au/complemed) who played a key role in the establishment of the NICM, believed: "There is mounting evidence that complementary medicine can make a significant, cost-effective contribution to public health in chronic disease, aged care and disease prevention,"
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