We’re proud to share that our international team of 20 experts from 11 countries and regions has published a groundbreaking scoping review titled “International Standards and Good Practice Guidelines in Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine” in Frontiers in Pharmacology.
📄 What is the study about?
In this scoping review, we mapped and created a comprehensive repository of international standards (IS) and international good practice guidelines (IGPG) across the field of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) from January 2000 to April 2025—a vital resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers worldwide.
🌍 Why is this important?
Our work aligns with the WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034, which envisions universal access to safe, effective, people-centred TCIM. High-quality, guideline-driven research is essential to achieve the Strategy’s four objectives:
1️⃣ Strengthening the evidence base
2️⃣ Supporting safe, effective provision through regulation
3️⃣ Integrating TCIM into health systems
4️⃣ Optimising cross-sector value and empowering communities
⏰ Why now?
As TCIM research expands, guidelines have flourished, but they remain scattered across multiple sources. Our review collected them, improving their accessibility to support consistent, high-quality research and practice.
🔑 Key Findings:
- Included 1,624 TCIM-relevant IS/IGPG documents and 402 secondary documents (e.g., systematic reviews)
- Issued by 33 international organisations, with accelerated production over the past two decades
- Strong focus on herbal medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, homoeopathy, cupping, and ayurveda
- Top publishers include EDQM, EUM, AU, EMA, ISO, ICH, WHO, and the EQUATOR Network
📢 Join us in elevating TCIM globally!
You can:
👉 Read our open-access paper here:
👉 Help disseminate and implement these IS/IGPG
👉 Contribute to evaluating and refining guidelines
👉 Promote global equity in access, implementation, and coverage
Together, we can advance safe, effective, and integrated healthcare for all.
ℹ️ Further information: This project was commissioned by the Board of Directors of the Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association (https://www.gp-tcm.org/), an international society, an Interested Party of the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products, European Medicines Agency, and a charity registered in the UK. As a non-profit organisation, the Association is dedicated to advancing high-quality, evidence-based research and education on traditional Chinese medicine and other modalities of TCIM through the development, endorsement, dissemination, and implementation of good practices.
📧 Contact Us: Professor Xuanbin Wang (Hubei University of Medicine, wangxb@hbmu.edu.cn); Professor Michael Heinrich (University College London, m.heinrich@ucl.ac.uk); Professor Rudolf Bauer (University of Graz, rudolf.bauer@uni-graz.at); Professor Pierre Duez (University of Mons, pierre.duez@umons.ac.be); and Dr Qihe Xu (King’s College London, qihe.xu@kcl.ac.uk).