Italy and the Dialogue on Human Health between Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture and Western Medicine.

From May 10 to May 11, 2012 Italy hosted the first conference on the ‘Dialogue on Human Health between Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture and Western Medicine’ [1]. This dialogue between China and Europe, focusing on possible integrations of their respective medical cultures, has been concluded with the signing of the ‘Declaration of Bologna’ by Romano Prodi, president of the Foundation for World Wide Cooperation, former president of the European Union, and former Prime Minister of Italy, and Xu Jialu, former chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. The goal is to set up a permanent round table meeting every year in a different country with the objective of building a new synergistic model of healthcare and treatment of diseases that will integrate Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) knowledge and Western medical science. The event was promoted and organized by the Foundation for World Wide Cooperation, the Bonn Project, the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS), and the School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Bologna. The scientific portion of the dialogue included lectures and round tables featuring some of the world’s most prominent experts on Western medicine and TCM who address history and culture, efficacy and safety, research and innovation, and cooperation between the 2 different approaches to medicine, with the goal of exploring concrete opportunities for making these 2 worlds more complementary and synergistic. The scientific meetings focused on various aspects of human health, with special attention to most common diseases, such as cardiovascular and chronic degenerative diseases. Others addressed the state of the art in research and treatment methods, the evidence-based approach and the standards applied to the clinical trials conducted in the context of TCM practice, the drawing up of monographs for the pharmacopoeia, and the European norms on natural products. In addition to considering traditional techniques, such as acupuncture, the presentations also examined innovative scientific advances, such as a cellular technology designed to identify new pharmacological targets for natural products in human stem cells.