Getting Started: How to Use the EBCAM Website

The Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EBCAM) web site has been designed with a consistent navigation scheme to help users gain easy access to content.

Three Sections Tabs
There are three section tabs located in the middle top of each page of the web site. Each section has a pull-down menu showing the content for that section. Once a selection is made from the pull-down menu the content for that topic is displayed on the left side of the screen.

About EBCAM
The “About EBCAM” section provides information about the aims and objectives of the Tufts Program in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (EBCAM) and evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine in general. It is intended as an introduction to the subject matter of the website and explains the choice of the specific CAM modalities selected for this website.

CAM Modalities
This section is the main content area of the web site and is divided into four modalities:

East Asian Medicine
Nutrition
Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care
Religion and Spirituality.

The content of each modality appears in the menu on the left hand side of the screen and is organized to reflect the current issues and major themes of the modality as, for example, in the menu for East Asian Medicine. This allows the user to navigate at will throughout each modality.

Content for each of the modalities has been created by faculty from Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) and the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA). Content is reflective of learning objectives and is not, nor is it intended to be, comprehensive. Conditions or disease states have been chosen to provide illustration of the evidence base for a specific CAM intervention.

Resources
The “Resources” section is a collection of books, journals, and websites selected to provide further information about other CAM curricula and CAM therapies that appear on the EBCAM website. It also contains links to resources on CAM therapies other than the four chosen modalities of the EBCAM website. Resources were selected using the criteria of the National Library of Medicine and the Medical Library Association and faculty suggestions. In cases where an organization was the only representative of a particular therapy it was also included.

Tufts EBCAM Logo
The Tufts EBCAM logo is located in the top left corner of each page. Clicking on this returns you to the home page of the website.

Function and Information Buttons
These function and information buttons are located in the top right corner of each page and provide ways to find information using either Search or Site Index, and additional help and contact information for both Tufts University School of Medicine and the New England School of Acupuncture.

Quick Links
Located on every page the Quick Links drop-down menu gives Tufts users easy access to some of the most frequently used resources on the EBCAM website. The ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and DARE are all evidence-based medicine databases accessed through OVID. AltMedDex provides comprehensive referenced data on herbal medicines and dietary supplements covering uses, efficacy, dosing, toxicity, and more and is part of the Micromedex suite of pharmacology databases.

Reference Pop-up Boxes
All of the content in the CAM modalities is fully referenced. Clicking on a numbered citation within the text will open up a reference pop-up box in a separate window. All references indicate whether or not the item is owned by Tufts, where it is located and if it is available electronically a full-text a link is provided. Full-text links are for articles in Tufts-subscribed journals and to material publicly available on the Internet.