Patients Receiving Integrative Medicine Effectiveness Registry (PRIMIER) of the BraveNet practice-based research network: study protocol.

Background: Integrative medicine (IM) provides patient-centered care and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and environmental influences that affect a person's health. IM is a "whole systems" approach that employs multiple modalities as opposed to an isolated complementary therapy. Thus, studying outcomes of IM is more challenging than evaluating an isolated intervention.