R & D in traditional medicine is very important , because it will help poor persons to get cheap medicine/treatment for their illnesses.
Hello Houw Liong,
There are many confounders to studying traditional medicine. The method of delivery and the instruments available to test the effects are two important variables. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working on integrating traditional with conventional medicines. At the present time, the patient decides which method to use and then selects a clinic. Here is some important information to consider when developing a study, below from WHO. I will also provide a link. Similar inclusion criteria could be used (age, medical conditions, sociodemographics) to compare clinical outcomes of those who are treated with traditional medicine versus conventional medicine for the same medical condition.
Traditional and conventional health care
Apart from some experimental exceptions, in Indonesia, traditional and conventional or 'modern' health care services are not integrated; they merely co-exist. Integration only seems to take place at the level of individual patients, who are known to switch between different systems of care.
In recent years, the Indonesian Ministry of Health has adopted a policy of trying to modernize traditional medicine, while retaining its identity. This modernization encompasses several aspects, such as improving diagnosis through the use of modern techniques while providing treatment by traditional methods, as well as modernization of the production processes and quality control of traditional medicines. The latter takes place via the introduction of Good Manufacturing Practices and via the development of a registration system and of quality specifications for widely used herbal materials and preparations1. The modernization policy also includes efforts to encourage scientific research, including clinical trials, to document the effectiveness of traditional medicines; such empirical evidence is required to make the use of these products acceptable to the medical profession, and therefore, ultimately, in order to integrate these different systems of health care.
http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2996e/6.2.html
it growing so fast. we are now focusing on scientification of traditional herbs based on clinical and preclinical data
What type of "scientific evidence" are you going to use to compare "traditional medicine" with "non-traditional medicine"?
Dennis
Dennis Mazur
While I do agree that R&D in traditional medicine is important as it may reveal unexplored opportunities, I am not sure I agree with the statement that "poor people will get cheap treatment for their illness". It is possible that by integration of traditional medicine with modern medicine we may be able to provide more of a whole body approach, individualised medicine. Otherwise, based on your statement, we would only create a deeper gap in the quality of care the patients receive.
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