ABSTRACT
As Western governments grapple with policy issues entailed in integrating complementary medicine into national health services, many developing countries have long since addressed these issues. Their experience constitutes a valuable, although largely unexplored, pool of policy data. Medical pluralism – the use of multiple forms of health care – is widespread. Consumers practise integrated health care irrespective of whether integration is officially present. In Taiwan, 60% of the public use multiple healing systems, including modern Western medicine, Chinese medicine, and religious healing. Asia has seen the most progress in incorporating its traditional health systems into national policy. Most of this began 30–40 years ago and has accelerated in the past 10 years. In some Asian countries such as China the development has been a response to mobilising all healthcare resources in meeting national objectives for primary health care. In China, the integration of traditional Chinese medicine into the national healthcare system began in the late 1950s.
