Advancing CAM/IM research with the claim assessment profile

The push towards grounding healing claims in an evidence base is underway. It is not appropriate to evaluate all claims of healing with the same methods. The “gold standard” RCT may skip important qualitative and observational data about use, impacts, and benefits. This gap has prompted a move towards studying treatments in their naturalistic settings. Bridging this gap, Samueli Institute created a methodology called Scientific Evaluation and Review of Claims in Healing (SEaRCH) by offering a scientifically rigorous, systematic, and streamlined framework for evaluating claims of therapies, practices or products for treating disease and improving health. The Claim Assessment Profile (CAP) is a segment of SEaRCH. The CAP methodology was designed to study treatments in their natural setting. The CAP provides an independent “snapshot” of the characteristics of a clinical practice and determines the viability of studying the claim in a clinic's actual practice. The CAP method is highly collaborative and draws on established methodologies including program evaluation, Rapid Assessment Procedures, Program Theory-Driven Evaluation Science and Appreciative Inquiry. This talk aims to describe this research framework and provide recent examples including its application at an integrative medicine oncology clinic. The CAP method successfully clarified the practices and claims of this clinic and provided an independent description of the practice, clarified their hypothesized mechanisms of action on outcomes, and determined the practice's readiness and capability to be involved in research. The CAP method is a useful tool to aid in advancing research on CAM/IM.