Twenty-eight experts from 14 countries and regions met at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine on October 19 and 20 for the Seventh Beijing Forum on Evidence-Based Medicine and the 2026 eCMTA Journal Academic Symposium, an event that signals how far traditional Chinese medicine is being pushed toward the standards of modern clinical science.
The forum was co-hosted by BUCM's Center for Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine and the Journal Center, with co-organization by the university's International Evidence-Based Chinese Medicine Research Institute and other institutions. Professors Liu Jianping and Fei Yutong chaired the sessions, which coincided with BUCM's 70th anniversary. Vice President Liu Cunzhi told attendees the university has long promoted integration of traditional Chinese medicine with evidence-based medicine and hoped the forum would strengthen international exchange and resource sharing.
The stakes are significant for patients and health systems. Evidence-based medicine combines clinical experience, reliable research evidence and patients' needs and preferences. Its application to traditional Chinese medicine remains contested: evaluating efficacy and safety and translating findings into usable evidence are described in the source material as key challenges. That matters because traditional medicine is widely used, and weak evidence can expose patients to unproven benefits and unrecognized risks.
The roster underscored the seriousness of the effort. Participants included Gordon Guyatt, a founder of evidence-based medicine, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and professor at McMaster University; Nicola Robinson of London South Bank University; Lao Lixing, President of Virginia University of Integrative Medicine; and Dennis Chang and Alan Bensoussan of Western Sydney University. In his keynote, Guyatt noted that evidence varies in reliability and that high-quality decisions require scientific appraisal and systematic summaries while accounting for patients' values and preferences. Robinson addressed "What Counts as Evidence?", stressing that trust requires rigorous research into real effects and risks rather than individual success stories or personal impressions.
Other sessions examined Chinese herbal medicine trial methodology, global trends in evidence-based integrative medicine, and acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue in breast cancer patients. Roundtables covered priority conditions and international cooperation, and a young scholars' session gave early-career researchers a platform on clinical research, evidence evaluation, acupuncture efficacy and guideline development. The program also addressed artificial intelligence and the translation of evidence into clinical practice guidelines.
Pan Yanshu, director of the Journal Center, said evidence-based medicine is not tradition versus modernity but a way to test traditional medicine's clinical value through modern science. She said she expected eCMTA to gather high-quality evidence and promote international dissemination of traditional Chinese medicine research. The journal's symposium brought together Tsinghua University Press representatives and editorial board members online and offline; Robinson, co-editor-in-chief, reported on development since launch, column adjustments, board responsibilities and international influence. Manuscripts can be submitted through the journal's submission portal, and the journal's progress is tracked at its SciOpen journal page.
For the reader, the implications extend beyond one academic gathering. As health systems weigh spending on traditional therapies, the push to subject them to systematic evidence review could reshape which treatments are recommended, reimbursed and trusted. The forum's organizers framed deeper clinical research and international cooperation as a route to greater scientific understanding of traditional Chinese medicine's clinical value and to broader improvements in healthcare quality and public health.
