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The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) announces the launch of its newly redesigned Web site, nccam.nih.gov, which houses an array of information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices and research. The site features not only a new architecture for easier navigation and access to information, but also new content and links.

With growing attention being paid to the field of CAM, ensuring that consumers and professionals can easily find up-to-date CAM information is becoming increasingly important. In the first 4 months of 2002, NCCAM's Web site logged over 419,000 user sessions. NCCAM's Web site was established in 1998 and has been nationally recognized. It was named by Yahoo! Internet Life magazine as one of the "Top 100 Web Sites" in both 2001 and 2002. NCCAM's site was recognized for having the "Best Alternative Medical Information."

"As the lead Federal agency for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) research, an integral part of our mission is to disseminate authoritative information to the public and professionals," said Stephen E. Straus, M.D., NCCAM Director. "The Internet is critical to our efforts, and having an effective, easy-to-use Web site is one way to ensure that people with Internet access have accurate and credible CAM information."

The content of the NCCAM site was reorganized so that finding information is more intuitive. In addition to reorganized content, the site features a contemporary look emphasizing the connection of science, nature, and CAM approaches.

To create an effective new Web site, NCCAM recruited representative Web site users-consumers, researchers, physicians, and health care practitioners-to test the old site and a prototype of the new site. The results of testing were incorporated into the new design.

The redesigned site was unveiled at the 11th meeting of the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine on May 28, 2002.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is dedicated to exploring complementary and alternative medical (CAM) practices in the context of rigorous science, training CAM researchers, and disseminating authoritative information to the public and professionals. For additional information, call NCCAM's Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226.