WHO To Incorporate Evidence Based Traditional/Complementary Medicine

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun steps to incorporate evidence based traditional and complementary medicine into medicare across the globe.
Already a special unit referred to as  Evidence to Policy and Impact Unit (Research for Health Department) and the Evidence Unit of the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine have begun the process.
At a  side event during the 2024 Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) that sought to explore the current state of Evidence-informed policy-making (EIDM) the body is studying the  implications of incorporating Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine (TCIM) in fostering inclusivity, health equity, and global health governance.
The event will explore potential mechanisms such as infrastructure, conditions, frameworks for enhancing the use of evidence in global policy development toward realising TCIM’s contribution to health and wellbeing.
The use of evidence in policy and decision-making has exponentially grown, and it is now considered standard practice within health systems.
However, the gap between research and practice persists as WHO push for initiatives that promote the institutionalisation of Evidence-informed decision/policy-making (EIDM), such the Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet), and tools.
The checklist, currently under a pilot-test stage is to assess  validity and feasibility, highlights six areas of governance; standards and routinised processes; leadership and commitment; resources and capacity-building/strengthening; partnership, collective action, and support; and culture in traditional and complementary medicine.
The Gujarat Declaration of the first WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine was held on 17-18 August 2023 at Gandhinagar, India.
It articulated an action agenda including a focus on research and evidence, while proposing “making appropriate use of existing and new research, evidence syntheses and knowledge translation principles and WHO initiatives.”
It also recommended capacity strengthening “to produce, translate and use TCIM research and Indigenous knowledges” and supporting “the evidence-based integration of TCIM in national health policies and systems based on highest quality research.”
This side event, a first step in advancing toward the evidence-related proposals of the Gujarat Declaration, seeks to assess the advances and challenges of integrating TCIM in EIDM institutionalisation globally and the needed conditions to strengthen it.
Further information about the side event on the PMAC website: