Background: The reasoning behind evaluating medical interventions is that a hierarchy of methods exists which successively produce improved and therefore more rigorous evidence based medicine upon which to make clinical decisions. At the foundation of this hierarchy are case studies, retrospective and prospective case series, followed by cohort studies with historical and concomitant non-randomized ...

Background: The clinical use of Chinese herbal medicine granules is gradually increasing. However, there is still no systematic review comparing the effectiveness and safety of granules with the more traditional method of herbal decoctions.<p> <p>Method: A literature search was conducted using China National Knowledge Infrastructure Databases (CNKI), Chinese Science and Technology Periodical ...

Introduction: The safety of health care is increasingly prominent concern of the public, applying to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as well as conventional treatment. In 2009, a group of academic and clinical CAM researchers held a workshop to discuss the constraints and priorities of research into CAM safety. This group here report their discussions, and offer collaboration with ...