A review of traditional medicine research in Sri Lanka: 2015–2019
Overview
In 2014, the World Health Organization endorsed the WHO Traditional Medicine (TRM) Strategy 2014–2023 with the goals of harnessing the potential contribution of TRM to ensuring health, wellness, and people-centred health; promoting safe and effective use of TRM; and achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by regulating TRM products, practices, and practitioners.
In 2014, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (WHO-SEARO) adopted a regional resolution on traditional medicine, wherein all Member States agreed to adopt and implement the WHO TRM Strategy 2014–2023 and the Delhi Declaration on TRM. To assist and support Member States in implementing these strategies, WHO-SEARO organized a regional workshop on TRM and identified the regional TRM action points in 2015. The workshop aimed to strengthen research capacity in traditional medicine through training and documentation of research activities. As per this action point, the WHO-SEARO TRM programme is conducting a number of activities, including regional workshops on clinical research methodologies.
Given the increasing demand for evidence-based traditional medicine, many Member States in the SEA Region have invested time and resources in TRM research. Research output is evident in domestic and international journals and publications. Sri Lanka was the only country in the world with an independent Ministry of Indigenous Medicine before 2015 (later it was integrated with the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine). The Sri Lankan government has provided substantial support for research and development (R&D) in traditional medicine. However, the outcomes of the research efforts are not widely known and have not been disseminated to the public in many cases.
Therefore, this country review was planned to better understand the scope of research in traditional medicine in terms of key achievements, gaps, challenges, and a roadmap for R&D in traditional medicine. The research activity may further nourish and support future activities in other Member States.
