Clinical Trials of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China: Status and Evaluation

The modernization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are the key issues we must face up to. The development of TCM needs to de pend on the breakthrough of methods and the innovation of ideology, and the inte rnational standardization of scientific research evaluation. The clinical eviden ce from randomized comtrolled trials (RCT) is valuable and reliable. It has show n that the proportion of RCT identified in TCM journals was less than 30%, and t he score of RCTs quality was less than 3 using Jadad scale. However, the numbe r of systematic reviews on TCM is increasing rapidly after the evidence-based m edicine (EBM) was introduced and practiced in China. Until 2004, 43 systematic r eviews of TCM were published in China, and the quality of RCT included in those reviews was elevated. It has shown that the efficacy and safety of TCM indicated some advances in treatment of certain kind of diseases. It has been realized th at RCT are important in TCM, and improving the quality of RCT is the key step fo r modernization and internationalization of TCM.