Candidate: Remy Coeytaux, M.D. is an assistant professor of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC), a doctoral student in Epidemiology, a medical acupuncturist, and a former Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. Research career development plan: The career development plan includes coursework, tutorials, and mentored research activities to provide the candidate with further training in clinical trial methodology, acupuncture practice and research, headache research, and academic leadership. Immediate career goals: To become a productive and independent investigator who can apply rigorous research methods to the study of acupuncture, while at the same time respecting acupuncture traditions that may contribute to clinical outcomes. Long-term career goals: To become a Professor of Family Medicine who successfully integrates clinical acupuncture with conventional medical practice and research. Research projects: Project 1 is a randomized clinical trial (N=100) to assess the efficacy of acupuncture as an adjunct to medical care for the treatment of headache. Project 2 (N=30) will test the feasibility of a novel acupuncture comparison group that may make it possible to mask acupuncturists from subjects' treatment arm allocation. These two projects will provide preliminary data and guide the design of a subsequent R-O1 application for a "triple"-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of acupuncture for headache. Environment: Patients will be recruited from the UNC Headache Clinic, and the clinical trials will be conducted through the NIH-funded General Clinical Research Center at UNC. Mentorship: Mentorship will be provided by a team of senior-level researchers, including a leader in education of complementary and alternative medicine (Dr. Curtis), a highly-experienced family medicine researcher (Dr. Sloane), a leading expert in measurement development and evaluation (Dr. DeVellis), and an expert in biostatistics and clinical trials (Dr. Davis). Outside consultants who will assist with select aspects of the proposed activities include a renowned expert, teacher, and researcher of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Dr. Kaptchuk), an epidemiologist and health services researcher with extensive experience with clinical trials of acupuncture (Dr. Sherman), and a leading expert on chronic daily headache (Dr. Spierings).

K23AT001194

2002-07-01

2007-06-30