Regional workshop to share experience and evidence on appropriate integration of traditional medicine into national health-care systems

Overview

Traditional medicine has long been a popular source of care in the maintenance of health, and the prevention and treatment of disease – especially chronic disease – in countries in South-East Asia (SEA). World Health Organization (WHO) Member States have formally recognized that traditional and complementary medicine contribute to people’s health and well-being, with the Delhi Declaration on Traditional Medicine in 2013, and the new global WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023. The goal of this strategy is “promoting the safe and effective use of traditional and complementary medicine through the regulation, research and integration of the products, practices and practitioners into the health system, as appropriate.”

Health services are organized in many ways. In some countries, traditional and modern health services are practiced together at every level of the health system, governed by the same legislation and funded from similar sources of funds. In others, they are more separate. It means that traditional medicine (in SEA Region, the acronym TRM is used) has been integrated into national health-care systems in varying degrees. However, these different arrangements are not well documented, and the systematic monitoring and evaluation of traditional health services is limited. Questions such as who goes where for care, what health problems are being treated, what traditional medicines are provided, what are the results, how much do people spend, and how safe are TRM products and practices can be hard if not impossible to answer. This information is needed to formulate national policies, and appropriately finance, organize and manage TRM services.