Objectives

• Ongoing mapping of the scientific evidence for biofield therapies in order to increase accessibility of the latest findings and advance the field

Hypotheses

• The research landscape of biofield therapies is poorly understood
• The lack of ability to access the scientific evidence base for biofield therapies in a straightforward and targeted way is an impediment to the field’s advancement
• A comprehensive picture of the existing evidence base will help facilitate further strategic, high impact, and rigorous research through identification of research gaps, clarification of new research opportunities, and the ability to credibly answer targeted research questions
• A picture of the evidence base can support the integration of an integrative or complementary modalities into established, mainstream health programs
• A landscape view can enable funders to better evaluate grant proposals, inform new strategic initiatives, and help establish legitimacy with large scale governmental funding institutions
• The map will improve the ability of stakeholders to develop evidence-based educational materials and communicate the findings available for health conditions in a clear and concise manner

Constituents

• Researchers
• Funders
• Practitioners
• Medical schools
• Health systems, medical clinics and hospitals
• Consumers and patients

Outcomes

• A scoping review: a robust and systematic effort that seeks to identify all of the English language peer-reviewed literature published on subtle energy and biofield therapies
• An evidence map: a comprehensive visual representation of the results of the scoping review identifying gaps in the research, quality of the research, promising areas for future funding, clinical benefits for specific health conditions, interventions ready for healthcare system integration, and interventions to be incorporated into health policy and insurance reimbursement across populations, conditions, practices/therapies, outcomes and associated measures/metrics, and types of study design
• A publicly available dynamically searchable, visual evidence map platform online and freely available to all stakeholders as a resource commons for public benefit, a living library, updated semi-annually with the latest evidence
• A MESH Tree and SubHeadings proposal forwarded to the National Library of Medicine for biofield therapies
• A peer-reviewed journal publication of scoping review and evidence mapping findings from the project, as merited