The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by the public has been gaining increasing popularity in recent times. While in W Europe and Australia reports suggest that about 20–70% of people regularly use CAM, in the USA (1992), it was estimated that at least one-third of Americans utilized CAM, and in fact the number of annual visits to providers of alternative medicine exceeded that to primary care physicians. CAM is mostly sought for chronic ailments, when conventional system of medicine offers no cure. The WHO report (2002) states that at least 70% of the world population still believes in alternative medicine, like homeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, Amchi, traditional Chinese medicine, aromatherapy, herbal medicine in general, dietary supplements, and so forth. The continuing demand for CAM therapies will definitely have its impact on health care delivery in the future. Primary health care is defined as a set of universally accessible holistic health and social services that promote health, prevent disease, and provide diagnostic, curative, rehabilitative, supportive, and palliative services. With a holistic emphasis, CAM should be able to complement the goals of PHC per se as its concepts are consistent with those recommended. Integration may serve to enhance health care equity wherein all individuals may have access to a range and combination of services that can contribute to reduced sickness and an increased health-related quality of life.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles that will stimulate efforts to understand the importance of CAM and PHC in today's context and their possible integration for the betterment of patient therapy and cure. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Integration and use of CAM in PHC systems
• Challenges and goals of CAM in PHC: CAM as a possible solution provider (expert thoughts and preliminary/anecdotal examples)
• Acceptance of CAM in conventional modern medicine
• Indications where CAM may have a major role, namely, chronic ailments
• Epidemiological and pharmacoeconomic concerns of CAM
• CAM interventions in clinical trials
• CAM education in medical and allied health care curricula: prospects and implications
• Policies/medicolegal issues of integrating CAM with PHC

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: