While the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines CAM as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems...that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine," many conventional practitioners hold that there is no alternative medicine--only evidence-based medicine. Snyder (director, Center for Ethics and Professionalism, American College of Physicians; U. of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics) and contributors from the legal and medical fields examine the historical, legal, ethical, and problematic cross-disciplinary communication contexts of CAM, and debates over the legitimacy and implications of specific CAM modalities for patients. About half of the contributors are directly involved in CAM. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)