title: Policies for traditional medicine in peripheral China.
abstract: This paper examines the management and practice of traditional medicine in three autonomous regions of the People's Republic of China: Inner Mongolia; Tibet; and Xinjiang. On this basis, the paper considers how established medical traditions might best be integrated into modern health care systems. It holds that indigenous forms of medicine that have been practiced successfully across many generations should be treated as different but equal within wider health care systems. China has made important progress toward this ideal but, at the same time, has quite a long way to go. It is highly recommended that Chinese policymakers increase their efforts to give all established traditional medicines different but equal status within regional health care systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Ruiping
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Holliday
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D002681:China; D035082:Federal Government; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D012423:Rural Health; D012424:Rural Population