title: [Concept and significance of a subjective and multiple index system of clinical evaluation for traditional Chinese medicine].
abstract: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has its own system of diagnosis and treatment theory, and its methods for evaluating clinical efficacy are different from those of Western medicine. Applying evaluation techniques and methods that are used in Western medicine mechanically to TCM will not work. So building evaluation techniques, which adhere to regulations and characteristics of TCM, is necessary and imperative. As the quality of life and patient-reported outcome instruments were brought into practice and developed, clinical evaluation ideas and methods for TCM are provided with an opportunity for development. This article puts forward the concept of subjective complex outcomes (SCOs), which constitutes subjective feelings gained from the patient, doctor and caregiver, different from laboratory parameters. SCOs provide a multidimensional and complex health-related quality of life (HRQL) assessment and focus on the source of assessment information of diseases. This article also introduces a case study building SCO methods of TCM treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, in order to promote discussion and provide a platform for future research.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin State Key Laboratory of Modern Chinese Medicine, Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin 300193, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Wei-wei
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zeng-tao
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ji-hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Hong-cai
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Shang
mesh_terms: D018563:Disease Notification; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life