Riding on the back of globalisation, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been gaining acceptance outside the Chinese community. After years of lobbying by proponents to integrate TCM into mainstream healthcare, the World Health Organisation (WHO) finally recognised TCM in 2019 and included its details in the 11th version of WHO's International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems for the first time. 

Renowned hospitals outside Asia Pacific, like Mayo Clinic in the USA and the University College London Hospitals in the UK, have set up departments specialising in alternative forms of medicine, including TCM. Research and evidenced-based practice is a key focus in these centres, slowly chipping away, through scientific studies, at the criticisms that TCM is unproven.

Acupuncture, for instance, has clinically proven to be effective for pain management. However, clinical evidence showing the benefits of other aspects of TCM are not similarly available, making it challenging for them to be acceptable in mainstream healthcare.

The TCM industry continues to modernise. As Lin Zhixiu, Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine puts it, “The way forward for traditional Chinese medicine for me is combining it with Western medicine. This could offer the best of both systems to the patient.”

Could we be at the cusp of seeing all this coming to fruition? With the resources and expertise poured into this area, we could certainly see some results in the near future.