The Faculty would do well to appoint an external audit committee. kubais/ShutterstockThe Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney has just announced A$1.3 of funding from Blackmores, the complementary medicine manufacturer, for a Chair in Integrative Medicine (a blending of evidence-based conventional and complementary medicine). It will be named after the company’s owner, Maurice Blackmore. The Dean of the Faculty, Bruce Robinson, has given a coherent and persuasive account of why research in this area is of importance to modern medical practice. Nearly a quarter of Australians with chronic health problems use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and the bewildering range and often changing nature of these products are often of unknown efficacy, and may have important adverse or beneficial interactions with prescribed medicines.