The 2010 Highlighting Massage Therapy in Complementary and Integrative Medicine Research Conference

The Massage Therapy Foundation will host the conference titled " Highlighting Massage Therapy in Complementary and Integrative Medicine Research " , May 13–15, 2010, at the Red Lion Inn in Seattle, Washing-ton. Content will be made available through six keynote presentations, two panel discussions, four experiential workshops, and approximately sixty research presentations and posters with an emphasis on translational research and public health. The Foundation's first " Highlighting " conference, in 2005 at Albuquerque, was called by some a " Woodstock experience. " I certainly felt a palpable, infectious joy spreading through a group of like-minded massage enthusiasts, giddy with research. Although 2005 was only four years ago, the massage profession has made some significant advancements in regard to research since then. Massage therapists seem to be more curious about research, educators are more inclined to quote research data in the classroom , and vendors are more visibly supportive of research with their dollars and in their advertisements. These changes were notable most recently at the American Massage Therapy Association national convention in Orlando in September 2009: the number of attendees at the research track classes was increased from previous years, educators throughout cited research during their presentations, and participation at fundraisers for the Foundation broke previous attendance records. Massage research has also experienced some growth spurts. In a search of CINAHL and PsycINFO simultaneously, " massage and clinical trials " yielded 595 In response to this coming-of-age with regard to research , the planning committee has identified transla-tional research, rather than research literacy (the primary theme for workshops in 2005), as the cornerstone of the upcoming conference. This shift in emphasis to transla-tional research is subtle, yet pivotal. It shows that we are actively engaged in pursuing research data and seeking ways to influence research in return. Although translational research is typically defined as a linear translation of scientific discoveries to practical applications, the Roadmap to Medical Research initiatives from the National Institutes of Health is promoting the bench-to-bedside approach as a two-way street. Basic science provides clinicians with new tools for use in the patient population and for impact assessment, and clinical researchers make novel observations about the nature and progression of disease that often stimulate basic scientific investigations (http://