CAM education: promoting a salutogenic focus in health care.

Introduction: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) education has created a focus that not only brings awareness of various CAM therapies to conventional medical education but also highlights how these therapies can bring insight toward improved health care.

Methods: A survey of CAM educational leaders at institutions awarded grants for incorporating CAM education into medical curricula was performed to address how CAM education can improve health care delivery in America.

Results: Five (5) core themes were noted to be successful in achieving this goal.

Teaching communication in clinical clerkships: models from the macy initiative in health communications.

Medical educators have a responsibility to teach students to communicate effectively, yet ways to accomplish this are not well-defined. Sixty-five percent of medical schools teach communication skills, usually in the preclinical years; however, communication skills learned in the preclinical years may decline by graduation. To address these problems the New York University School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School collaborated to develop, establish, and evaluate a comprehensive communication skills curriculum.