International Standards and Good Practice Guidelines in Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine: A Scoping Review

Xuanbin Wang^1,2*Hongliang Li²Shun Jiang¹Nian Yang³Dongpeng Wang¹Hongxi Xu⁴Nicola Robinson⁵Lie-Fen Shyur⁶Michael Heinrich⁷Mei Wang⁸Monique S.J. Simmonds⁹Linda LD Zhong¹⁰Fatiha Brahmi¹¹Thomas Efferth¹²Salvius Bakari Amuri¹³Clara Bik-San Lau¹⁴Wendy Wong¹⁵Rudolf Bauer¹⁶PIERRE DUEZ¹⁷Qihe Xu¹⁸

• ¹Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
• ²Renmin Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, China
• ³The First Affiliated Hospital (Shenzhen People’s Hospital), Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
• ⁴Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China
• ⁵London South Bank University, London, United Kingdom
• ⁶Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Taiwan
• ⁷University College London School of Pharmacy, London, United Kingdom
• ⁸SU Biomedicine B.V., Leiden, Netherlands
• ⁹Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
• ¹⁰Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
• ¹¹Faculty of Natural and Life Sciences, Laboratory of Biomathematics, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Scientometry, University of Bejaia, Bejaia, Algeria
• ¹²Johannes Gutenberg Universitat Mainz, Mainz, Germany
• ¹³Universite de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo
• ¹⁴The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
• ¹⁵The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
• ¹⁶Universitat Graz, Graz, Austria
• ¹⁷Universite de Mons, Mons, Belgium
• ¹⁸King's College London, London, United Kingdom

Objective To map the development of international standards (IS) and international good practice guidelines (IGPG) across the field of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) and establish a comprehensive repository. Method A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, ProQuest, and the Cochrane Library, as well as relevant websites, with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools. This search combined MeSH terms and keywords, and was further supplemented by non-systematic human expert input, covering the period from January 2000 to April 2025. Duplicates were removed and all records were screened based on pre-defined criteria for TCIM-relevant IS/IGPG and TCIM-and IS/IGPG-related systematic reviews, implementation documents and commentaries. Findings 2026 records met inclusion criteria: (a) TCIM-relevant IS/IGPG documents (n=1624); and (b) TCIM-and IS/IGPG-related secondary documents (systematic reviews, perspectives and commentaries, n=402). These IS/IGPG were produced by 33 international organisations and consortia, broadly applicable to TCIM or specific to a particular TCIM modality. Our data showed acceleration in IS/IGPG production over the past two decades. An analysis of the secondary literature provided a broad overview of the disease spectrum and the application of IS/IGPG in TCIM studies. Conclusion A comprehensive repository for TCIM-related IS/IGPG has been established. These IS/IGPG can be expected to play important roles for an efficient implementation of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025-2034. Future work should focus on disseminating, implementing and harmonising these IS/IGPG, evaluating their effectiveness and refining them, while promoting global parity in access, implementation and coverage. Study registration: The Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/H8UFM).