00:00And I spoke to Dr. Shyama Kurovila, director of the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Center.
00:06So for billions of people around the world, they're already using different forms of traditional medicine,
00:13either because it's their primary access to health care, but for many in low, high, middle income countries,
00:21it's also a preferred choice, a preferred choice for more personalized, holistic, nature-aligned solutions
00:28and something that's more personalized.
00:31And so WHO's role is very clear.
00:35It's about assessing the evidence base, especially on efficacy and safety,
00:41and ensuring that people have the highest quality care for their health and well-being
00:48and with traditional medicine because it's so aligned with nature.
00:52It's also for the health and well-being of the planet we share.
00:55Can you tell me about how China is working with the WHO on traditional medicine?
01:02So China has been a long-standing partner with WHO,
01:06and China has been working with WHO to support the documentation of traditional Chinese medicine
01:16to ensure that there are global standardized codes to collect data for example on the international classification of diseases
01:26and also on the international classification of health interventions.
01:30It's also really important for practitioners.
01:34As you may know, acupuncture is probably one of the most widely practiced traditional medicine interventions around the world globally.
01:43And so having standardized practice and training and education approaches also is very important.
01:50And this knowledge is millennia old in China and continues to use today and is evolving with the science.
02:01And I think China's close engagement with WHO and the complementarity of those roles has been very important.
02:09What developments have there been in researching the effectiveness of TCM and what are the challenges?
02:16So there's been real progress on researching the effectiveness and there have been, as you know, historically several challenges.
02:28Our predominant way of establishing effectiveness has been more aligned around the biomedical pharmaceuticals
02:36where you might have a single molecule or active ingredient and then you're looking at its effect on a single
02:44symptom.
02:45Whereas traditional medicine systems are looking at more holistic, personalized, context-specific applications,
02:53which actually is where the world is moving to now with precision medicine and preventative and personalized medicine.
03:00And what work still needs to be done?
03:02The work around strengthening the evidence base, both in terms of developing fit-for-purpose criteria to establish safety and
03:13efficacy
03:13using frontier science technologies that are now enabling us to do this, would be the first step.
03:21WHO has just conducted a global research priority setting exercise.
03:25And we found that less than 1% of global health research funding is going to traditional medicine,
03:33even though it's used by billions of people and there are so many applications.
03:38So the funding of research as well and the prioritization is really important.
03:43That then informs regulation to ensure it's safe and effective use, as well as equitable access.
03:53And that leads us to the integration agenda and then the cross-sectoral value,
04:00because the global wellness industry is one of the most rapid-growing industries worldwide.
04:08And traditional medicine is at the heart of it.
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