Plan aims to establish medical standards

China plans to establish 180 domestic standards on traditional Chinese medicine and 30 international standards by the end of 2026, according to an action plan released recently by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Prevention, treatment and rehabilitation standards for major diseases, chronic illnesses, infectious diseases and other conditions suitable for tackling with TCM will be drawn up.

Naming standards and technical guidelines for TCM medical technologies, as well as TCM health management and well-being promotion documents for different age groups, will be developed.

Norms for TCM pharmaceutical services and other industry standards, such as standardized ways to prepare and prescribe TCM concoctions, will also be formulated.

Other bench-mark documents covering the entire industry chain of the TCM sector, and its use in the information age and TCM-related smart technologies will be explored, according to the action plan.

Zhu Gui, head of the administration's department of policies, regulations and supervision, said that advancing standardization of TCM will contribute to improving TCM products and services and securing their quality, as well as promoting academic research on TCM and facilitating its spread overseas.

She added that China has already drawn up more than 3,000 types of standards on TCM and established the basic framework of a TCM standards system.

Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a renowned TCM specialist, said the development of the internet, big data and artificial intelligence makes it necessary to incorporate such novel technologies into TCM standardization.

It is also important to translate outcomes of clinical research into standards, and encourage the use of the standards in real-life TCM applications and in the promotion of TCM overseas, he said.