The World Health Organization (WHO) is convening the Traditional Medicine Global Summit on 17 and 18 August 2023​ in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. Co-hosted by the Government of India, the Summit will discover the function of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine in addressing urgent well being challenges and driving progress in world well being and sustainable growth.

High-level contributors will embrace the WHO Director-General and Regional Directors, G20 well being ministers and high-level invitees from nations throughout WHO’s six areas. Scientists, practitioners of conventional drugs, well being staff and members of the civil society organizations may even participate. 

In pursuit of well being for all

The Summit will explore methods to scale up scientific advances and notice the potential of evidence-based data in the usage of conventional drugs for folks’s well being and well-being world wide. Scientists and different specialists will lead technical discussions on analysis, proof and studying; coverage, knowledge and regulation; innovation and digital well being; and biodiversity, fairness and Indigenous data.

“Traditional medicine can play an important and catalytic role in achieving the goal of universal health coverage and meeting global health-related targets that were off-track even before the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.  “Bringing traditional medicine into the mainstream of health care — appropriately, effectively, and above all, safely based on the latest scientific evidence — can help bridge access gaps for millions of people around the world.  It would be an important step toward people-centered and holistic approaches to health and well-being.”

Heads of State and authorities on the 2019 UN high-level meeting on universal health coverage acknowledged the necessity to embrace evidence-based conventional and complementary drugs companies significantly in major well being care, a cornerstone of well being programs, in pursuit of well being for all.  Today, conventional and complementary drugs is properly established in lots of elements of the world, the place it performs an necessary function within the tradition, well being and well-being of many communities. In some nations, it represents a significant part of the health sector’s economy, and for hundreds of thousands of individuals world wide it’s the solely out there supply of well being care.

Advancing science on conventional drugs

Traditional drugs has contributed to breakthrough medical discoveries and continues to carry out nice promise. Research strategies similar to ethnopharmacology and reverse pharmacology might assist establish new, secure and clinically efficient medicine, whereas the application of new technologies in well being and drugs — for instance genomics, new diagnostic applied sciences, and synthetic intelligence — might open new frontiers of data on conventional drugs. 

Amid an growth in the usage of conventional drugs worldwide, security, efficacy and high quality management of conventional merchandise and procedure-based therapies stay necessary priorities for well being authorities and the general public. Natural doesn’t all the time imply secure, and centuries of use should not a assure of efficacy; due to this fact, scientific methodology and course of should be utilized to offer the rigorous proof required for the advice of conventional medicines in WHO pointers. 

“Advancing science on traditional medicine should be held to the same rigorous standards as in other fields of health. This may require new thinking on the methodologies to address these more holistic, contextual approaches and provide evidence that is sufficiently conclusive and robust to lead to policy recommendations,” stated Dr John Reeder, WHO Director of Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and Director of the Department of Research for Health.  

The Summit will discover analysis and analysis of conventional drugs, together with methodologies that can be utilized to develop a world analysis agenda and priorities in conventional drugs, in addition to challenges and alternatives primarily based on 25 years of analysis in conventional drugs. Findings from the systematic critiques of conventional drugs and well being, proof maps of medical effectiveness, and a synthetic intelligence world analysis map on conventional drugs might be introduced.

A stronger proof base will allow nations to develop applicable mechanisms and coverage steerage for regulating, guaranteeing high quality management and monitoring conventional drugs practices, practitioners and merchandise, in response to nationwide contexts and desires. 

WHO world survey on conventional drugs, ICD-11 and different knowledge

At the Summit, WHO will current rising findings from the third world survey on conventional drugs, which, for the primary time, consists of questions on financing of conventional and complementary drugs, well being of Indigenous Peoples, high quality assurance, conventional drugs data, biodiversity, commerce, integration, affected person security, and extra.  The full survey, which might be launched later within the 12 months, first on an interactive on-line dashboard after which as a report, will inform the event of WHO’s up to date conventional drugs technique 2025-2034 as requested by the World Health Assembly in May 2023.

Standardization of conventional drugs situation documentation and coding in routine well being data system is a pre-requisite for efficient administration and regulation of conventional drugs in healthcare programs. This consists of consideration of varieties, incidence charges, and outcomes related to conventional drugs healthcare. The Summit might be a chance to showcase nations’ experiences, discover regional developments and talk about finest practices, together with within the implementation of the traditional medicine chapter within the newest International Classification of Diseases, the ICD-11.

Participants within the Summit will look at a world overview of coverage, authorized and regulatory landscapes; formal buildings and insurance policies to gather knowledge and set up programs for data administration; an evaluation of instructional and coaching programmes for the event of conventional drugs workforce; and experiences and finest practices on coaching, accreditation and regulation of conventional drugs practitioners, which may considerably advance affected person security and decrease affected person hurt within the provision of conventional drugs companies.   

Biodiversity and indigenous data

Biodiversity and indigenous data are foundational pillars of conventional drugs and well being and well-being, particularly for Indigenous Peoples; 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity is in Indigenous territories or lands, whereas conservation of biodiversity is a key difficulty associated to the sustainable use of conventional medicines. 

In preparation for the Summit, a WHO world workshop on biodiversity, indigenous data, well being, and well-being was held in Brazil from 25 to twenty-eight July, to higher perceive the invaluable connection between biodiversity, conventional data, and human well being. Meeting outcomes, within the type of suggestions, might be introduced on the Summit, and can contribute to the biodiversity and One Health workstream.

The Summit’s give attention to sustainable biodiversity administration within the face of the local weather disaster will drive the identification and sharing of finest practices, initiatives, and legislative frameworks on the safety of conventional data, innovation, and entry and equitable benefit-sharing by nations.  The discussions on the Summit will give attention to the rising prospect of worldwide financial actions associated to conventional drugs, Indigenous knowledge-based improvements in well being care, software of mental property legal guidelines and laws, and the use and promotion of indigenous and ancestral drugs by way of intercultural dialogues to help group well being.

Notes to the editor

About the Summit

The 2023 WHO Traditional Medicine Global Summit is organized by the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre, and is co-hosted by the Government of India, which holds the G20 presidency in 2023 below the theme “One Earth, One Family, One Future”. This would be the first in a sequence of WHO world summits on conventional drugs, which might be held each different 12 months in numerous WHO areas.

Why now

For centuries, conventional, indigenous and ancestral data has been an integral useful resource for well being in households and communities, and it continues to  kind a big a part of healthcare in lots of areas: 170 of the WHO’s 194 Member States have reported on the usage of natural medicines, acupuncture, yoga, indigenous therapies and different types of conventional medicines; many acknowledge conventional drugs as a useful supply of healthcare and have taken steps to combine practices, merchandise and practitioners into their nationwide programs. 

Today, conventional drugs has turn into a world phenomenon: demand is rising, with sufferers looking for larger company and possession of their well being and well-being and looking for extra compassionate and customized well being care.  For hundreds of thousands, particularly these dwelling in distant and rural areas, it continues to be the primary port of name for well being and well-being, providing care that’s culturally acceptable, out there and inexpensive. 

WHO work on conventional drugs

WHO conventional drugs programme began in 1976; as we speak, by way of its Traditional, Complementary and Integrative drugs Unit, WHO is working with nations on growing standards and benchmarks for the coaching and follow of various programs of conventional drugs, and for his or her evidence-based integration within the International Classification of ailments (ICD). 

The 11^th revision of ICD (ICD-11), which got here into impact on 1 January 2022, includes a chapter on traditional medicine for twin and optionally available coding, which is predicated on conventional drugs originated in historic Chinese Medicine (now generally utilized in China, Japan, Republic of Korea and elsewhere world wide).  WHO is growing the following module in conventional drugs chapter, which can embrace diagnostic phrases of Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha programs of drugs. 

WHO is implementing its second Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014–2023, targeted on growing norms, requirements and technical paperwork primarily based on dependable data and knowledge to help Member States in offering secure, certified and efficient conventional and complementary drugs companies, and their applicable integration into well being programs.  The growth of an up to date technique for 2025-2034 interval was requested by the Member States on the World Health Assembly in May 2023.

In 2022, with the help of the Government of India, WHO arrange the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre in response to the elevated world curiosity and demand for evidence-based conventional drugs.  It is the primary and solely WHO world centre devoted to conventional drugs.  This data hub focuses on partnership, proof, knowledge, biodiversity, and innovation to optimise the contribution of conventional drugs to world well being, common well being protection, and sustainable growth, and is guided by respect for native heritages, assets, and rights.

The third world survey on conventional drugs is designed to observe the progress within the efficiency of conventional and complementary programs, to higher perceive their function, operate and affect in nations’ well being programs and to align with WHO and world monitoring frameworks.  The outcomes will help the event of latest conventional drugs technique 2025-2034.  The survey is constructing on the earlier world surveys carried out in 2001 and 2012, with follow-up knowledge collected between 2016 and 2018.  The outcomes had been printed within the 2019 WHO Global report on traditional and complementary medicine. Two T&CM indicators had been included within the Global reference listing of 100 core well being Indicators (and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals).