Nancy Griffin

The spa industry took a huge leap forward last month with the launch of SpaEvidence.com . The Global Spa Summit sponsored-site is an industry portal that documents the medical benefits of spa and wellness therapies. The site contains thousands of clinical studies, and is a key resource to educate spa professionals and consumers on the efficacies of spa treatments.

“Our industries have long been accused of soft, anecdotal claims, when what was really missing was a resource to access the clinical research that supports so much of what we do,” says Susie Ellis, President of SpaFinder and GSS board member. Spaevidence.com draws upon four pre-existing databases to collate clinical evidence on the efficacy of 22 key spa therapies.

SpaEvidence’s Key Features:

Research Channel: Users can search four of the most authoritative Evidence-Based Medicine databases for studies on 21 spa and wellness approaches: Natural Standard, The Cochrane Library, PubMed and TRIP.

Spotlight Channel: Highlights select medical studies for each therapy as a springboard to further research.

Studies-in-Progress: Visitors can investigate the clinical trials underway globally.

“Conversations” & “Contributions”: Users can contribute studies about — and their own experiences/outcomes with — spa/wellness approaches.

Integrative medicine leaders Dr. Marc Cohen (professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, AU), Dr. Daniel Friedland and Dr. Kenneth Pelletier served as the site‘s medical consultants and were critical in shaping the resource. “Increasingly more clinicians agree that one of the largest bodies of medical evidence is the one demonstrating that lifestyle changes, mind-body approaches and stress-reduction have the largest impact, on the largest number of health conditions, for the largest number of people,” noted Pelletier, clinical professor of medicine, University of Arizona and University of California, San Francisco. “SpaEvidence.com is a breakthrough because the evidence already exists, but until now it hasn‘t been easily accessible.”

Spa professionals across the globe are invited to get involved by linking directly to the portal from the their websites through logos and banners. “Embracing transparency is the path to true legitimacy and industry growth,” says Ellis. “I hope every spa and wellness center worldwide will use this portal, link to it and spread the word.”