General Guidelines For Methodologies On Research And Evaluation Of Traditional Medicine

In 1997, with the support of the National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA, a WHO informal discussion developed draft guidelines for methodology on research and evaluation of traditional medicine. Since then, the draft has been revised four times. The guidelines were finalized at a WHO consultation in April 2000, in Hong Kong, China, with the support of the Government of Hong Kong SAR. The guidelines focus on the current major debates on safety and efficacy of traditional medicine, and are intended to raise and answer some challenging questions concerning the evidence base. They also clarify certain commonly used but unclear definitions. The guidelines present some national regulations for the evaluation of herbal medicine, and also recommend new approaches for carrying out clinical research, for example, using the WHO QOL user manual. The quality of life (QOL) manual was developed by the WHO Programme on Mental Health, and may also be used to evaluate the results of clinical research in traditional medicine.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

Explains the purpose of statistical methods in medical studies & analyzes the statistical techniques used by clinical investigators, with special emphasis on studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Clarifies fundamental concepts of statistical design & analysis & facilitates the understanding of research results.

The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef

This two-volume publication sets out information on traditional, complementary and alternative medicines, revealing people's belief in and dependence on different traditional health systems around the world. The map volume provides a visual representation of topics including the popularity of herbal/traditional medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, bone-setting, spiritual therapies, and others; national legislation and traditional medicine policy; public financing; legal recognition of traditional medicine practitioners; education and professional regulation. The text volume covers developments in this diverse and expanding field of medicine in 23 countries across the world, as well as overviews of the status in each of the six WHO regions.