International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine

11/09/2025

Singapore is evaluating 18 proposals under a sandbox initiative to incorporate certain traditional Chinese medicine treatments into public healthcare. Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman chat with Yang Mingxiao, Assistant Professor at the School of Biological Sciences in NTU Chinese Medicine-Education 南大中医（教研）NTU School of Biological Sciences to examine the key elements in ensuring the success of this trial.

Singapore is evaluating 18 proposals under a sandbox initiative to incorporate certain traditional Chinese medicine treatments into public healthcare. Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman chat with Yang Mingxiao, Assistant Professor at the School of Biological Sciences in NTU to examine the key elements....

10/09/2025

Engaging Plurality, Negotiating Diversity: Sowa Rigpa Practices and Perspectives in/on a Changing World 🌏

That’s the topic of the Sowa Rigpa panel (No. 2) at the Medical Anthropology Europe Conference: Redefinitions of Health and Well-being in Vienna, September 16-19, 2025. 🌿

Over the past decade, Vienna has established itself as a global, vibrant hub for interdisciplinary medical anthropological research on Sowa Rigpa, encompassing Tibetan, Himalayan, and Mongolian traditions. This panel, which will take place on September 18, 2025, brings together – and into conversation with each other – scholars based in or connected to Vienna and their diverse Sowa Rigpa perspectives.

You can find further information in the panel's PDF document:
https://mae.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/k_mae/Panel_02__Engaging_Plurality__Negotiating_Diversity__Sowa_Rigpa_Practices_and_Perspectives_in_on_a_Changing_World.pdf

Organized by Stephan Kloos & Barbara Gerke

Online participation possible! 👉 Please register here: https://mae.univie.ac.at/registration/

03/09/2025

This is belated news, but the 21st International Congress of Oriental Medicine (ICOM) was held in Taiwan on August 30-31, 2025.

The main theme was "Traditional Medicine from Evidence-based to Integrative Medicine".

IASTAM's Vice President, James Flowers, and some other members also attended the event.

For more details, please visit the website:

03/09/2025

The National Institute for Korean Medicine Development (NIKOM) is organising the International Symposium on Traditional Medicine (ISTM), hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea, on 9–10 September 2025.

The main theme of the symposium is:
“Korean Medicine Meets Artificial Intelligence: Pioneering a New Future for Traditional Medicine.”

The symposium will be livestreamed on YouTube.

For programme details, please visit their official website:
👉

한의약진흥원 온라인홍보관

22/08/2025

"Modern pharmacology faces challenges in fully explaining inter-individual variability in drug efficacy and side effects. This article introduces a groundbreaking approach that applies Ayurvedic principles to interpret modern drug structures and actions, offering a more comprehensive framework for understanding drug behavior. " - An interesting paper published recently titled Translating Ayurvedic concepts to modern drug structures: A novel paradigm offers interesting insights using the Collaborative Medicine and Science (Co.M.S.) framework

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaim.2025.101203

22/08/2025

High-quality clinical trials and cohort studies demonstrate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine treatments using acupuncture and Chinese Proprietary Medicines (CPMs) for chronic and non-chronic diseases in Singapore.

NTU School of Biological Sciences NTU Chinese Medicine Clinic 南大中医诊所

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was introduced to the Singapore population by early Chinese immigrants from China.1 During Singapore’s colonial era,

20/08/2025

IASTAM member, Rivkin joins Qiological Podcast's Max to discuss the connection between translation and clinical practice. What does it mean to translate not just texts, but meaning itself?

Click on the link in the first comment to listen in 👇🏼

Their conversation explores the unseen weight of choosing one word over another, the challenge of translating classical Chinese into a modern context, how diagnosis itself is a kind of translation, and the subtle power of bias in everything we do—from clinic to scholarship.

20/08/2025

Upcoming seminar at Nanyang Technological University!

Dr Theresia Hofer, a medical and socio-cultural anthropologist of the Tibetan and Himalayan region will be giving a special seminar at NTU.

Location: NTU, School of Humanities, Meeting Room 2 (03-93)
Date: 29/08/2025
Time: 1 pm to 2:30 pm

Title: "Deaf and Disability Activism in Tibet and the Himalayas".

Drawing on nearly two decades of fieldwork in Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal, Dr. Hofer will examine how deaf and disabled communities engage with state institutions and NGOs, the politics of sign language, and the local dynamics of disability rights activism in the Himalayan region.

15/08/2025

Congratulations Daniel Spiegelman!

11/08/2025

An interesting new study compares the use of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations in the Four Medical Tantras of Tibetan Medicine and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā of Ayurveda.

The final article will be published soon but you can sign up to be notified here:

Aim of the study: This study aims to reveal and compare the use of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations as therapeutic means in the Four Medical Tant...