Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?

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Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?

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- Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?
- Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine Vol. 20, Issue 5, Pages: 336-340(2014)
- Affiliations：
  
  1. University College of Health Sciences -Campus Kristiania,Oslo,Norway
  2. National Research Centre in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromso,Norway
- Author bio：
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s11655-014-1809-3
  CLC：
- Published：2014，
  
  Published Online：2 May 2014，
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Birch, S., Alraek, T. Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 20, 336–340 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-014-1809-3

Stephen Birch, Terje Alraek. Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?. [J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine 20(5):336-340(2014)
Birch, S., Alraek, T. Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?., Chin. J. Integr. Med. 20, 336–340 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-014-1809-3 DOI：

Stephen Birch, Terje Alraek. Traditional East Asian medicine: How to understand and approach diagnostic findings and patterns in a modern scientific framework?. [J]. Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine 20(5):336-340(2014) DOI： 10.1007/s11655-014-1809-3.

摘要

Research into the diagnostic methods and patterns of traditional East Asian medical (TEAM) systems of practice such as acupuncture and herbal medicine face certain challenges due to the nature of thinking in TEAM and the subjective basis of judgments made in practice. The TEAM-based diagnosis can take into account various findings and signs such as the appearance of the tongue

palpable qualities of the radial pulses

palpable qualities and findings on the abdomen

the complexion of the patient and so on. Both diagnostic findings and the patterns of diagnosis cannot be assumed to have objective bases or to be causally related to the complaints of the patient. However

the diagnoses of TEAM based acupuncture and herbal medicine have tended to look at pictures of the whole patient and rather than focus on a particular symptom

they have looked across a myriad of signs and symptoms to decide or identify the ‘pattern’ of diagnosis according to the theory in question. Although open for selective and subjective biases each diagnosis pattern always comes with a prescribed treatment tailored to the pattern. Further

the same research requirements needed for the validation of the diagnoses are needed also for these clinical observations and judgments. Hence

it is necessary

albeit challenging for research on TEAM diagnoses to first address these issues before proceeding to more complex investigations such as the development of instruments for making diagnostic observations

instruments for forming diagnostic conclusions or studies investigating the physiological bases of the diagnostic patterns. Preliminary work has started and instruments have been made

but we suggest that any instrumentation must necessarily be first validated by matching of the calibrated or scaled observations or judgments to observations made and agreed upon by relevant experts. Reliability of all observations and judgments are needed before any other tool

technology or more advanced approach can proceed and also whenever the natural system of diagnosis-treatment is applied in clinical trials. In this paper the authors highlight the core problems and describe a step wise process for addressing them.

Abstract

Research into the diagnostic methods and patterns of traditional East Asian medical (TEAM) systems of practice such as acupuncture and herbal medicine face certain challenges due to the nature of thinking in TEAM and the subjective basis of judgments made in practice. The TEAM-based diagnosis can take into account various findings and signs such as the appearance of the tongue

palpable qualities of the radial pulses

palpable qualities and findings on the abdomen

the complexion of the patient and so on. Both diagnostic findings and the patterns of diagnosis cannot be assumed to have objective bases or to be causally related to the complaints of the patient. However

the diagnoses of TEAM based acupuncture and herbal medicine have tended to look at pictures of the whole patient and rather than focus on a particular symptom

they have looked across a myriad of signs and symptoms to decide or identify the ‘pattern’ of diagnosis according to the theory in question. Although open for selective and subjective biases each diagnosis pattern always comes with a prescribed treatment tailored to the pattern. Further

the same research requirements needed for the validation of the diagnoses are needed also for these clinical observations and judgments. Hence

it is necessary

albeit challenging for research on TEAM diagnoses to first address these issues before proceeding to more complex investigations such as the development of instruments for making diagnostic observations

instruments for forming diagnostic conclusions or studies investigating the physiological bases of the diagnostic patterns. Preliminary work has started and instruments have been made

but we suggest that any instrumentation must necessarily be first validated by matching of the calibrated or scaled observations or judgments to observations made and agreed upon by relevant experts. Reliability of all observations and judgments are needed before any other tool

technology or more advanced approach can proceed and also whenever the natural system of diagnosis-treatment is applied in clinical trials. In this paper the authors highlight the core problems and describe a step wise process for addressing them.

关键词

researchdiagnosisdiagnostic methodspattern identificationreliabilitytraditional East Asian medical systems

Keywords

researchdiagnosisdiagnostic methodspattern identificationreliabilitytraditional East Asian medical systems

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Related Institution

Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, HKSAR

Institute of Acupuncture, University College of Health Sciences CK

National Research Center in Complementary and Alternative Medicine, NAFKAM should be in brackets i.e. (NAFKAM), Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Science, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø

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