[General integral medicine: the strategic direction for complex health interventions].

Nowadays, the simple combination of Western medicine (WM) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cannot resolve all the health problems and various requirements. This article proposed the general integral medicine (GIM) theoretical model, which declares the disease causes analysis, clinical intervention and outcomes assessment should be recognized, managed and evaluated both from physiological, psychological, and spiritual status, and all the four dimensions: orthodox medicine (WM, Chinese medicine, etc.), individual inherent characteristics (emotion, attitude, psychology, etc.), cultural influences (doctors, caregivers, groups care, etc.), and natural environment and social systems (economic status, social security system, environmental pollution, etc). As for health outcomes assessment, a more comprehensive system including biological, doctors, patients, health intimate, social and environmental evaluations were required. The GIM model has individualized, dynamic, standardized, objective, systematic inherent characteristics, and opening and compatible external characteristics. It aims to provide the new theoretical guidance and strategic development direction for complex health interventions, and solve various medical related psychological and social problems.

Literature review and analysis of the application of health outcome assessment instruments in Chinese medicine.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the application of health assessment instruments in Chinese medicine. METHODS: According to a pre-defined search strategy, a comprehensive literature search for all articles published in China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was conducted. The resulting articles that met the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were used for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 97 instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine have been used in fundamental and theoretical research, and 14 of these were also used in 29 clinical trials that were randomized controlled trials, or descriptive or cross-sectional studies. In 2 152 Chinese medicine-based studies that used instruments in their methodology, more than 150 questionnaires were identified. Among the identified questionnaires, 51 were used in more than 10 articles (0.5%). Most of these instruments were developed in Western countries and few studies (4%) used the instrument as the primary evidence for their conclusions. CONCLUSION: Usage of instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine is increasing rapidly; however, current limitations include selection rationale, result interpretation and standardization, which must be addressed accordingly.

Literature review and analysis of the development of health outcomes assessment instruments in Chinese medicine.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the development of health outcomes assessment instruments in Chinese medicine. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search for all published articles in China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chongqing VIP Database and WANFANG Data was conducted. The studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were used to extract information according to a predesigned assessment instrument. RESULTS: A total of 97 instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine were identified. Of these questionnaires, 7 were generic, 12 were condition-specific and 78 were disease-specific. All instruments were suitable for adults, children, and both men and women. These instruments aimed to evaluate the health-related quality of life, signs and symptoms as well as patient satisfaction and doctor-reported outcome. However, the descriptions were poorly constructed for some of the most basic parameters, such as the domains and items, administrative mode, response options, memory recall periods, burden evaluation, format, copyright, content validity, and other properties. CONCLUSION: The instrument development for health outcomes assessment in Chinese medicine is increasing rapidly; however, there are many limitations in current methodologies and standards, and further studies are needed.