Northwestern has long recognized the importance of clinical research and its role in assessing treatment and diagnostic methods used by health care professionals. Over the past decade it has taken the lead among Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) institutions by committing the necessary resources to build the critical research infrastructure necessary to conduct high quality clinical research.

Since 1991, the Wolfe-Harris Center for Clinical Studies has served as the clinical research division at Northwestern. Our primary goals are to conduct high quality clinical research and to integrate research evidence with clinical judgment and patient preferences so that patients may receive the high quality health care they need and deserve .

Our focus has been on low back, neck and headache conditions which represent the conditions most commonly treated by CAM providers. To date, our Neck and Back Research Program has garnered more than $6 million dollars in funding to investigate exercise, chiropractic and self-care treatments, spinal biomechanics, and systematic reviews of the literature. If you are interested in learning more about our research efforts, we invite you to visit our Faculty Publications, Research Activity and Study Volunteers Needed webpages.