SILVER SPRING, Md.—Representatives from 15 countries recently attended the first Plenary Meeting of a newly formed Technical Committee, formed last year by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), for two days in Beijing, China. Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), was the head of the delegates from the United States, which included acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioners and educators and suppliers and marketers of Chinese herbal products.
Temporarily named Traditional Chinese Medicine, the technical committee (TC249) was formed last year by ISO following a request by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) to address a scope described as “standardization in the field of TCM, in terms of basis, application, administration and the related technical fields, such as terminology, diagnosis and treatment methods, manipulation standards, training standards, quality standards of appliance and equipment, and production and usage standards of Chinese herbal medicines and their test methods, etc.”
The primary meeting objective was clarification of the committee’s scope, in addition to some discussion of the committee’s final title. The delegates decided to place a high priority on standards for quality and safety of medical devices such as acupuncture equipment, and of natural materials such as herbal ingredients. There was also a call for informatics and for cooperation with other organizations engaged in efforts to standardize terminology and nomenclature of TCM botanicals. They decided to table issues such as practitioner education, training and practice and research methodologies for a later meeting.
“The U.S. delegation presented a consistent message of the need to respect the diverse history of this traditional medicine and to build on the many resources that already exist in this field,” McGuffin said, noting the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which is the U.S. member body to ISO, and NSF International (an ANSI member), which serves as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Administrator for TC 249, will continue its active involvement as this process unfolds.
