Discussion on traditional Chinese medicine and modern scientific research methodology

The relationship between tradition and modernity has attracted attention in various fields, including medicine. When the effective treatment methods of traditional medicine meet with the methodology of modern medical science, the result is that water and fire are incompatible or complement each other? This column will explore through clinical research of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

TCM has accumulated many excellent clinical experience in the long historical development process, and plays an irreplaceable role in dealing with various human diseases. The rise of evidence-based medicine, which emphasizes “following evidence”, also opens the prelude to the combination of the two. Therefore, there are more and more clinical studies of TCM. High quality clinical scientific research cannot be separated from perfect and rigorous scheme design, nor from effective and valuable clinical experience. The combination of TCM and modern research is an important topic worthy of careful consideration by relevant medical personnel.

The TCM clinical research column of LCM magazine invites many scholars engaged in TCM clinical and scientific research to explore the topics such as TCM clinical experience, TCM evidence-based system evaluation, clinical scientific research scheme and new research progress, and jointly explore the latest discoveries and insights of traditional medicine combined with modern scientific research methodology.

Scholars from China and Bulgaria published a total of 9 studies. Firstly, in terms of clinical experience, yodanka staykova pirovska and lyubima despotova toleva teams from Bulgaria brought us the research “on some aspects of alternative/comprehensive medicine in general practice: part of a Bulgarian study on general practitioners and patients”. Liu Shi Yi team from Beijing, China, shared the Wang Yutang’s clinical experience in the treatment of breast cancer with liver depression and spleen deficiency and liver kidney yin deficiency, while Li Bo's team discussed the clinical research on acupuncture, massage and health preservation. The rich clinical experience can not only be used as a reference for medical staff, but also provide new ideas for future medical research.

Systematic review is considered as a high-level evidence body in the “evidence pyramid”. Scholars from Beijing evidence-based center of traditional Chinese medicine discussed the topics such as “The safety of Chinese herbal medicine: a systematic review of adverse events in randomized controlled trials”, “Efficacy and safety of Auriculotherapy based on syndrome differentiation for Constipation vs. western medicine: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials” and “Efficacy and safety of Mailuo Shutong granule combined with low molecular weight heparin in the prevention of postoperative deep venous thrombosis: a systematic review and Meta-analysis”. These studies provide high-quality evidence-based evidence for doctors to make clinical decisions.

Rigorous research scheme is one of the guarantees for the authenticity and reliability of scientific research results. Through the in-depth discussion of several studies such as” Clinical application of Ganshuang granule in treatment of liver fibrosis: a protocol for developing an expert consensus”, “Effect of Moshen Digui prescription for treatment of idiopathic membranous nephropathy—protocol for a randomized, controlled, and single-blind trial”, “Narrative Review of Evaluation on the Effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine on Alzheimer's Disease via Machine Learning Approaches”, this column provides a reference for researchers to design research schemes.

Tu Youyou, the winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, once said that “artemisinin is a gift of traditional Chinese medicine to the world”. In the treasure house of TCM with a history of thousands of years, there are still many outstanding medical experiences to be excavated, waiting for today's researchers to continue to explore.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Longhua Chinese Medicine for the series “Narrative & Evidence-based Medicine for Traditional Medicine: from basic research to clinical practice and trail”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://dx.doi.org/10.21037/lcm-21-54). The series “Narrative & Evidence-based Medicine for Traditional Medicine: from basic research to clinical practice and trail” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. BL served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid Associate Editor-in-Chief of Longhua Chinese Medicine from March 2021 to February 2023. LDT served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Bo Li

Lyubima Despotova-Toleva