Journal of Traditional Medicine & Clinical Naturopathy
Open Access

Abstract

Integrative medicine is a patient-centered, holistic approach which makes use of all appropriate therapeutic modalities, harnesses the body��?s innate healing ability, and emphasizes prevention and wellness. It is informed by evidence and varied in practice. In this talk, an overview of the concepts of integrative medicine and Chinese Medicine will be presented. With aging population, sedentary lifestyle, physical and psychological stresses from everyday life and work, increasing prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases (e.g. metabolic diseases) and increasing healthcare costs, it is timely to explore how integrating Complementary Medicine (including Chinese Medicine) and allopathic medicine can help an individual as well as the larger community strive towards safe, effective, affordable, accessible and comprehensive care for health promotion, disease prevention and treatment. Some of the key challenges will be discussed and recommendations to address the challenges will be presented.

Biography

Hwee-Ling Koh is an Associate Professor and obtained a BSc (Pharmacy) (Hons) and MSc (Pharmacy) from the National University of Singapore, as well as a PhD from the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). She is a registered Pharmacist with the Singapore Pharmacy Council. Her research areas include TCM, quality control and safety of botanicals and drug discovery from medicinal plants. She is a technical/expert assessor with the Singapore Accreditation Council-Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (SAC-SINGLAS) and serves on various committees: Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) Advisory Committee on Evaluation of Health Claims; Complementary Health Products Advisory Committee (Health Sciences Authority, Singapore); United States Pharmacopoeia Expert Panels: Adulteration of Dietary Supplements with Drugs and Drug Analogs Expert Panel, and Herbal Medicine Compendium, East Asia Expert Panel. She has published 3 books, namely, “A guide to medicinal plants: an illustrated, scientific and medicinal approach”, “Ginseng and ginseng products 101- what are you buying?” and “Medicinal plants and malaria: applications, trends and prospects”.

Email: phakohhl@nus.edu.sg