In October 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) - formerly known as the Office of Alternative Medicine - awarded a $2.5 million grant to Palmer College of Chiropractic to establish the Consortial Center of Chiropractic Research (CCCR). It was the 11th NCCAM-sponsored center for the study of complementary and alternative therapies and the first established to facilitate the expansion of chiropractic research.
As many are already aware, the NCCAM, as part of the Department of Health and Human Services and affiliated with the NIH umbrella, is part of one of the world's foremost biomedical research institutions. It supports basic and applied research in practice and training opportunities and provides health care information to practitioners and the public.
The backing of a consortial center - whose purpose is to evaluate the potential effectiveness of chiropractic therapies, provide clinical and scientific technical assistance to chiropractic investigators, and aid in the development of individual research-initiated projects - is consistent with the NCCAM's expanding vision for the field of biomedical research.
Five chiropractic colleges provide the infrastructure to the CCCR, offering training, database development, and research opportunities. Palmer College of Chiropractic, Davenport, Iowa, is the headquarters, with partners Southern California University of Health Sciences, National University of Health Sciences, Western States Chiropractic College and Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.
An Advisory Committee composed of nationally known scientific and chiropractic experts directs the CCCR on programmatic aspects, sets research priorities, and makes final decisions related to the support of selected research projects. And a co-investigative Program Staff contributes to the body of expertise in such key areas as resource groups, consulting, training, biostatistics and data management, and scientific review.
CCCR's vision begins with an intensive effort in chiropractic research that is intended to carry over to public health, to health care professionals, and to the growth of chiropractic education.
CCCR's primary goals are to:
support a multi-disciplinary group of researchers and clinicians in the performance of basic pre-clinical, clinical, epidemiological and/or health services research of chiropractic, provide resources to conduct high quality research, including an environment for training future scientists, and encourage collaboration between basic and clinical scientists and between the chiropractic and medical communities.
And, specific to chiropractic research, the CCCR aims to:
establish a bibliographic resource on chiropractic topics
develop and implement research seminars and educational materials
establish a network of chiropractic clinicians and investigators as well as specific topical areas link investigators with the technical expertise necessary to pursue research goals
establish prioritized research topics and implement research.