WHO Launches Decade-Long Global Strategy to Integrate Traditional Medicine into Mainstream Healthcare
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new decade-long global strategy aimed at building a robust evidence base, regulating practitioners, and integrating traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM) into mainstream healthcare where appropriate. This initiative was launched during the second WHO global summit on traditional medicine held in New Delhi, which opened on 17 December.
Dr Shyama Kuruvilla, director of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre, highlighted the immense potential of traditional practices and stressed the importance of exploring them with modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, genomics, and brain imaging. The strategy seeks to bridge traditional medicine and biomedicine with a focus on prioritizing patient safety through a newly established WHO strategic technical advisory group for traditional medicine.
Reflecting national-level adoption, Thailand’s health ministry recommended in May that doctors switch from some biomedicines to traditional remedies for conditions including muscle pain and constipation. Despite their widespread popularity, TCIM services in most countries remain outside formal health systems, are typically paid out-of-pocket, and are subject to limited quality checks, emphasizing the need for improved safeguards.
The WHO also cautions against the unscientific inclusion of certain systems, such as homeopathy, underscoring that decisions about traditional medicine integration will be based on robust and reliable evidence of safety and efficacy. Moreover, Kuruvilla noted that traditional medicine could help address global healthcare workforce shortages and support universal health coverage. By leveraging the expertise of practitioners, especially in countries like China and India, and encouraging self-reliance amid cuts in external aid, traditional medicine is positioned as a complementary asset in advancing global health objectives.
