Washington, DC, March 21, 2024 – WHO held a Global Technical Coordination Meeting on Traditional Medicine in New Delhi, India, from 19 to 21 March, with the participation of 50 external experts from six WHO regions. The meeting, organized by the New World Traditional Medicine Center (GTMC), focused on defining priority actions to implement the Gujarat Declaration of the first WHO World Traditional Medicine Summit in 2023.
The main workstreams addressed during the meeting to promote the GTMC 2024-2025 action plan included research and evidence, policy perspectives, clinical data networks and knowledge sharing on ICD-11, biodiversity and indigenous knowledge, as well as digital Its applications in health and traditional medicine included. ,
Participants were also briefed on the development of the third edition of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy (2025–2034), as well as the status of several research projects initiated by WHO to map the available scientific evidence. On traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM), related research methods, and analysis of the global policy landscape. The status of work on the TCIM Task Force, digital health and artificial intelligence was also presented.
During the meeting, the development of a global evidence-based TCM repository was discussed as a cross-cutting outcome, with the aim of establishing a global public health facility that can provide support to health professionals, policy makers, students and the general public. Could. Balanced and quality information on the role and contribution of MTCI in universal health coverage and primary health care to meet the health needs of the population. The proposed repository is inspired by the work that the Americas Region has done in the development of a Virtual Health Library on MTCI, expressed by PAHO’s Latin American and Caribbean Center for Health Sciences Information (BIREME), and made possible Is. Thank you for the collaborative work of the MTCI America Network.
Best practices in the MTCI research and clinical data network from the Americas region were also presented: Benjamin Kligler, executive director of the Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Change at the U.S. Veterans Health Administration, presented key features, data infrastructure, and clinical Gave a presentation. the results of its holistic health model; Katherine Hansen, medical director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, demonstrated the BraveNet experience, a practice-based research network on ICCT articulated by a group of member institutions of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health; On the other hand, Professor Nicole Redvers, Research Chair and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at Western University, presented comments on the importance of protecting Indigenous peoples and their knowledge to achieve planetary health, sustainability and the use of traditional indigenous peoples’ medicines; Finally, Professor Nadine Ijaz, Director of the TCI Laboratory at Carleton University, presented the status of the TCI research methods mapping project initiated by WHO.
The event was followed by an internal coordination meeting at the GTMC office in Jamnagar, India, where Jonas Gonseth-Garcia, Health Systems and Service Quality Consultant and MTCI Regional Focal Point; João Paulo Souza, Director of BIREME, and Veronica Abdala, Manager of Information Services of BIREME, will discuss the next steps in regional commitment to this global agenda.