Despite tight budgeting in many sectors of biomedical research, the fledgling Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the National Institutes of Health recently learned it is slated for a big financial uplift.
In each of its first two years of existence, 1992 and 1993, the office received $2 million; for fiscal year 1994, however, President Bill Clinton requested and received $3.5 million.
Although just a "drop in the bucket" of NIH's $11 billion overall budget, as OAM spokesman Jim Bryant notes, it is still a significant and symbolic increase for the young, high-profile office--likely to mean more money for grants.
The jump in funding at OAM is indicative of the rising interest in and support for research in alternative medicine in many established biomedical settings, according to scientists and officials. Teaching programs also are in place or planned at several top medical schools. The establishment of such programs suggests that ...
