The Australian Centre for
Complementary Medicine Education and Research is on the
verge of closing its doors, as its directors await a
decision about its future.
ACCMER was established as a joint venture between the
University of Queensland (UQ) and Southern Cross
University (SCU) in 2001 in a bid to provide an
independent evidence-based reference point built on joint
strengths in research, innovation and teaching.
But in 2006, the board of ACCMER concluded the growth in
complementary medicine had made the sector too complex for
the centre to be its sole representative.
"We realised that there is a lot of need for research but
we only have a certain number of experts at ACCMER. So we
decided to become a virtual office or ‘stand-alone centre’
to all expertise. This meant we had to put all our staff
back into the universities and ACCMER became a call
centre," CEO, Beryl Morris, said.
While Ms Morris claims the call centre has been successful
for the last two years, the time has come for the
situation to be reassessed.
"Complementary medicine research is now embedded in a wide
range of disciplines at UQ and SCU with evidence-based
research taking place as a matter of course. With the
widespread integration of complementary medicine into the
health-related faculties of UQ and SCU and the rise of the
National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM) ACCMER
is examining the need for a UQ/SCU stand-alone centre."
"It’s a question of whether we think people are now
recognising that UQ/SCU can be contacted or whether we
should continue to maintain a front window for
complementary medicine. We need to evaluate how many
enquiries we get and whether these enquiries will decrease
if we cease to operate."
While ACCMER is continuing to complete all contracted
work, much of its purpose has now been taken up by NICM.
"Research currently underway has been sub-contracted to
people in the universities but in 2006 we realised we were
limiting the expertise. So we allowed ACCMER to expand the
talent pool of complementary medicine experts because the
people in ACCMER did not include every expert that was
available," Ms Morris said.
ACCMER will make a statement later this year on the
outcome of its deliberations.
Libby-Jane Charleston |
