International workshop to determine standard questionnaire when investigating population use of CAMAn international survey.

Background: There are no international consensus-based guidelines for how to monitor use of CAM. Wide discrepancies exist between culturally similar countries and regions. Objective: The aim of the present workshop is to discuss challenges in registering population CAM use, and develop a set of core questions to be used as the international standard when surveying CAM use in populations or patient groups. Participants: Researchers worldwide that have published in the area of population or patient prevalen ce of CAM use will be personally invited to the workshop. Program: The duration of the workshop will be two full days. The program will include plenary presentations from leading researchers, but the focus will be group work under the following three main themes: Registration of personal encounters with CAM providers, Registration of use of OTC and other non-encounter methods and Registration of use of traditional medicine (WHO definition). The goal is to establish a suggested international core question naire. Impact: The workshop will enable an international joint effort to establish well-reasoned guidelines for registration of CAM use.