Global alliance for traditional medicine launched to enhance international cooperation

The newly established Global Alliance for Traditional and Integrative Medicine is dedicated to promoting international cooperation, science and technology empowerment, and the integration of traditional medicine into healthcare systems, the alliance said on Sunday.

The alliance was officially founded on Saturday during the 2026 World Conference on Traditional Medicine. It is the world's first international nongovernmental, nonprofit scientific and technological organization covering diverse traditional medicine systems, with its secretariat based in Beijing, Qin Huaijin, the alliance's vice-chairman and secretary-general, said during a news conference on Sunday.

The benefits of traditional medicine are increasingly being recognized worldwide amid health challenges such as rising chronic diseases, an aging population, emerging infectious diseases, and antimicrobial resistance, he said.

Data from a World Health Organization report in 2019 shows that about 80 percent of the world's population in over 170 of WHO's 194 member states use some form of traditional medicine.

Qin said the alliance is set up with the aim of building platforms for cooperation and academic exchanges, advancing innovation, standards formulation, and evidence-based research, as well as accelerating traditional medicine's integration into healthcare systems safely and effectively.

The alliance is open to members worldwide. Membership targets include traditional medicine social organizations, higher education institutions, research institutes, healthcare institutions, enterprises, as well as expert and youth networks.

So far, it has admitted 117 institutions and individuals from 19 countries and regions.

Iva Lloyd, the alliance's vice-chairman and chief executive officer of the World Naturopathic Federation, said the alliance can provide a roadmap between directives from the WHO and traditional medicine and serve as a hub that connects traditional systems of medicine, traditional knowledge, education, research, and industry.

"People in almost every country rely on traditional medicine," she said. "Our shared responsibility is to make sure that we work together to make traditional medicine more accessible, standardized, and research-based, and that we do so with respect for traditional medicine, heritage, and knowledge."