CITATION: Traditional, complementary and integrative healthcare: global stakeholder perspective on WHO’s current and future strategy
Tido von Schoen-Angerer et al. BMJ Global Health: https://gh.bmj.com/content/8/12/e013150
Correspondence to Dr Tido von Schoen-Angerer; tido.von.schoenangerer@gmail.com
SUMMARY BOX
- WHO has started drafting a new 10-year traditional medicine strategy that will be presented to the World Health Assembly for approval in 2025.
- There is a time window for stakeholders from traditional, complementary and integrative healthcare (TCIH) to reflect and provide input into the new WHO strategy.
- Our analysis draws attention to several critical areas: research; regulation of products, practitioners and practices; harnessing of TCIH approaches for health promotion, prevention and treatment; and integration into health systems.
- The authors encourage considering TCIH as a key resource in the reorientation of healthcare systems from a disease to a person-centred model.
FIRST PARAGRAPH
'The essential role of traditional, complementary and integrative healthcare (TCIH) in achieving health and well-being and universal health coverage (UHC) is stated in the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014–2023 (WHO TM Strategy) and in the Astana Declaration on Primary Health Care, with its corresponding operational framework. The role of TCIH for the achievement of health and well-being for all was reemphasised at the recent WHO Traditional Medicine Summit in India...'
COMMENT (NPW): It's notable that 'this paper is written from the perspective of the People’s Declaration on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Healthcare'. I have not read the full paper, but it's not immediately clear whether and how other (allopathic) health professionals and the wider public have been consulted. Would anyone like to comment?
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
