Developing TCM clinical practice guidelines: A comparison between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine

Clinical practice guidelines in Traditional Chinese Medicine (CPG-TCM) is the recommendation that aims to provide the best service to users by identifying and summarizing the rules of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and regression of diseases based on systematic reviews of evidence and balancing the advantages and disadvantages of different interventions for clinical questions of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Over the past 30 years, the concept and methods of evidence-based medicine have had a significant impact on the development of clinical practice guidelines in Western Medicine (CPG-WM), and their standardized guideline development methods are being adapted and used in the development of CPG-TCM. However, the quality of CPG-TCM is far from CPG-WM, and the methodological system for developing CPG-TCM is not yet fully established. Therefore, this study aims to explore the methodological differences between CPG-TCM and CPG-WM and to inform the development of high-quality CPGTCM.