Globalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine: what are the issues for ensuring evidence‐based diagnosis and therapy?

Application of machine learning in Chinese medicine differentiation of dampness-heat pattern in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

“…The ICD-11, the new release of the ICD, contains a supplementary chapter for Traditional Medicine Conditions [[ 9 ]]. This chapter describes various types of traditional medicine patterns, including the dampness-heat pattern in the liver-gallbladder, uterus, bladder, liver meridian, spleen system et al Although the revision of ICD-11 added a chapter on TCM, and WHO had made clear that this chapter does not refer to nor endorse any specific form of traditional medical treatment [[ 49 ]], there still was some worry voice about how to provide objective, reliable, reproducible assessment and to reduce inter-rater variability by diagnostic procedures [[ 50 ]]. The basic methodology of CM practitioners for pattern diagnostic is still primarily based on experience, tacit knowledge and possibly subjective perceptions from rigorous training.…”

Epidemiology of Fallacies

“…Many of the conclusions and recommendations of the reports I am concerned with here have been widely criticised and denounced by, among others, independent experts (Edzard Ernst, Cochrane.org, see e.g. Ernst 2006;Singh & Ernst 2008), international academies of science and medicine (European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC), Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM); see Fears et al 2020), and editorials and reports in leading scientific journals (Cyranoski 2018;Nature's editorial 2019). The main criticism is that T&CM treatments have not yet been adequately validated according to established scientific and regulatory criteria to earn the acceptance they are being afforded.…”

Using herbs medically without knowing their composition: are we playing Russian roulette?

“…The day that science has finally demystified the exact composition of the myriad agents used in herbal medicine will be the day when it is safe to wholeheartedly embrace herbal therapy. The strict criteria of scientific rigor in the determination of the efficacy and side effects of conventional medications must be applied equally to those "natural" preparations 1 .…”

“…"First, do no harm." Hippocrates, 460-355 BCE Two influential European advisory bodies, namely, the European Academies' Science Advisory Council and the Federation of European Academies of Medicine recently recommended that herbal medications should be subjected to the same regulatory oversight and the same robust quality standards that are mandatory in conventional Western Medicine 1 . As stated in the journal, Nature, "Hundreds of years of use in clinics that don't standardize or analyze the clinical data are no match for blinded, controlled studies.…”