NCCIH Timeline

The U.S. Congress passes legislation (Public Law 102-170) that provides $2 million in funding for fiscal year 1992 to establish an office within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate and evaluate promising unconventional medical practices.

Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs is appointed the first Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM).

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 (P.L.103-43) formally establishes the OAM within the Office of the Director, NIH, to facilitate study and evaluation of complementary and alternative medical practices and to disseminate the resulting information to the public.

Congress authorizes making the OAM into an independent Center at NIH, called the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) signs the organizational change memorandum creating NCCAM and making it the 25th independent component of NIH.

NCCAM awards its first research project grant.

The NCCAM Trans-Agency CAM Coordinating Committee is established by the NCCAM Director to foster the Center's collaboration across the HHS and other Federal agencies.

The National Advisory Council on Complementary and Alternative Medicine is chartered.

Dr. Stephen E. Straus becomes the first Director of NCCAM.

NCCAM publishes its first 5-year strategic plan.

NCCAM and the National Library of Medicine launch CAM on PubMed, a tool for searching the scientific literature for information on complementary health approaches. 

NCCAM inaugurates a new lecture series on the NIH campus, “Distinguished Lectures in the Science of Complementary and Alternative Medicine,” with NCCAM Director Dr. Straus delivering the first lecture. In March 2009, the series is renamed in his honor as the annual “Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies,” supported by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health with a generous gift from Bernard and Barbro Osher.

A clinical trial funded by NCCAM, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements finds that the herb St. John’s wort was no more effective than a placebo for major depression of moderate severity.

NCCAM and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) announce findings from a supplement to the 2002 National Health Interview Survey on the use of complementary health approaches by American adults—the largest, most comprehensive survey on this topic to date.

A clinical trial funded by NCCAM and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) finds that acupuncture relieved pain and improved function in people with osteoarthritis of the knee.

The Institute of Medicine releases a report, Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States, requested by NCCAM and its Federal partners.

NCCAM publishes its second 5-year strategic plan.

The Glucosamine/chondroitin Arthritis Intervention Trial (GAIT), a multicenter study supported by NCCAM and NIAMS, shows that glucosamine and chondroitin supplements did not provide significant relief from knee osteoarthritis pain in the total group of study participants. However, pain relief was observed in a subgroup of participants with moderate-to-severe pain.

Dr. Straus steps down as NCCAM Director, and Dr. Ruth L. Kirschstein becomes Acting NCCAM Director.

NCCAM establishes an Integrative Medicine Consult Service at the NIH Clinical Center.

Dr. Josephine P. Briggs becomes the second NCCAM Director.

NCCAM and the NCHS announce findings from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), including the first comprehensive data on children’s use of complementary health approaches.

NCCAM’s year of events marking its 10th anniversary includes the inaugural Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and a 10th Anniversary Research Symposium.

The 2007 NHIS yields the first nationally representative data on Americans’ spending on complementary health approaches.

The inaugural lecture in the Center’s Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series takes place.

A video series from the Center, “The Science of Mind and Body Therapies,” launches, with the first video entitled “Tai Chi and Qi Gong for Health and Well-Being.”

An NCCAM-funded study conducted at the University of Wisconsin finds that echinacea did not reduce the duration or severity of symptoms of the common cold. Several earlier, smaller NCCAM-funded studies of echinacea for colds also had negative results.

NCCAM publishes its third 5-year strategic plan.

The new NCCAM Research Blog offers news and dialogue to the research community about the Center’s projects and initiatives.

NCCAM launches a new intramural research program on the brain and pain, with Dr. M. Catherine Bushnell as its first Scientific Director.

NIH funds the Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory, with NCCAM Director Briggs as co-leader and NCCAM as the project’s administrative lead agency and a major scientific contributor.

A clinical trial supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and NCCAM shows that chelation therapy modestly reduced cardiovascular events in adults aged 50 and older who had suffered a prior heart attack.

The NIH Task Force on Research Standards for Chronic Low-Back Pain releases recommended standards for clinical low-back pain research. NCCAM co-led the task force’s steering committee.

In collaboration with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), NCCAM funds 13 research projects on nondrug approaches for managing pain and related conditions in military personnel and veterans.

Congress renames NCCAM the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).

NCCIH and the NCHS announce findings from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey, including updated data on adults’ and children’s use of complementary health approaches.

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins appoints NCCIH Director Dr. Josephine P. Briggs as Interim Director of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative® Cohort Program, a position held concurrently with the Directorship of NCCIH.

NCCIH publishes its new 5-year strategic plan.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings publishes a review by several NCCIH staff scientists of U.S clinical trials on complementary health approaches used for chronic-pain conditions commonly seen by U.S. primary-care providers.

Dr. Emmeline Edwards, Director of the Division of Extramural Research, co-chairs the workshop launching the activities of “Sound Health,” an initiative on the relationship between music, the brain, and health. NIH and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in association with the National Endowment for the Arts, are partners on Sound Health, which expands a previous NIH-National Symphony Orchestra initiative.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the VA announce the NIH-DoD-VA Pain Management Collaboratory, an initiative modeled on the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory. NCCIH serves as the lead agency and contributes more than half the funding in this interagency research partnership.

The Center's Director, Dr. Josephine P. Briggs, retires and becomes editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). Dr. David Shurtleff is named Acting Director.

NCCIH launches “Know the Science,” an NCCIH initiative to clarify and explain to consumers scientific topics related to health research, is launched.

NCCIH co-sponsors, with the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and several other NIH components, a roundtable workshop on the role of emotional well-being in health, to advance research in this area.

NCCIH releases its first mobile app, HerbList™, which provides science-based information on herbs and herbal products.

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins appoints Dr. Helene M. Langevin as NCCIH director.

NCCIH announces six research awards, co-funded from the NIH’s HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) Initiative, on behavioral interventions for primary or secondary prevention of opioid use disorder, or as complements to medication-assisted treatment. These projects supplement the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grants initiative.

NCCIH hosts a 20^th anniversary research symposium including a keynote on “Why We Need a Pain Revolution: From Science to Practice,” lightning round presentations with early-stage investigators, and panel discussions on pain research in military and veteran populations as well as the future of natural products research.