Holistic Health Studies (HHS) Research Guide

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is the federal government's lead agency for scientific research on complementary and integrative health approaches. Their mission is to "define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health interventions and their roles in improving health and health care." This agency was formerly known as NCCAM.

This site is an extension of the National Library of Medicine's database and provides information on alternative medical therapies, clinical trials, research, laws and policies, organizations, and publications.

The Field was established in 1996 to support and promote systematic reviews of complementary, alternative, and integrative therapies and to function as a link between Cochrane, a worldwide organization that prepares systematic reviews of all kinds of healthcare therapies, and practitioners, researchers, and consumers with an interest in complementary medicine.

Founded in 2003, the Penny George Institute is the largest integrative health center embedded in a health system in the country (Allina Health, the largest health system in Minnesota).

The Center for Mindfulness (CFM) begins in the 1970’s at UMass Memorial Medical Center, where Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, began the original Stress Reduction clinic that soon developed into Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and the Center made its home at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

The mission of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) is to disseminate mindful awareness across the lifespan through education and research.