In 1992 the US Congress created the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), placing it within the NIH, one of the foremost bio-medical research establishments world-wide. The OAM is currently funded to the tune of $40 million per year. Although alternative and unconventional medicine attracts considerable attention (and finances) from the public in Western societies, many within the established medical and research communities are outwardly cynical and dismissive of alternative medical practices. We have asked Wayne B. Jonas. Director of the OAM, to discuss what the OAM hopes to achieve and how it is going about it.