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Evid Based Complement Alternat MedecamEvidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine : eCAM1741-427X1741-4288Oxford University Press 10.1093/ecam/nem072ObituaryIn Memoriam: Stephen E. Straus, M.D. First Director of NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Internationally Recognized Physician-Scientist9 2007 4 3 397 397 © 2007 The Author(s).2007This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Stephen E. Straus, M.D., 60, the first director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), died of brain cancer May 14, 2007, at his home in Potomac, Maryland.

“As the founding Director of NCCAM from 1999 to 2006, Dr. Straus built a comprehensive research enterprise, championing the efforts to establish the efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices while upholding the rigorous standards of science for which the NIH is known. Under his leadership, CAM research at NIH grew threefold, facilitating his vision of an evidence-based integrative approach to health care for the benefit of the public. As a friend and fellow virologist, I will sorely miss him. I am proud to have been chosen to be the Acting Director of NCCAM to uphold and further his vision for the Center,” said Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D.

A full statement is available at: http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2007/051507.htm

If you have further questions, please contact the NCCAM Press Office at 301-496-7790 or NCCAMPress@mail.nih.gov

