Developing a Chinese Medicine programme in a western medical university

Chinese medicine is one of the most famoustraditional medicines in the world with a glorious andlong written history of at least 2000 years. Recently,acupuncture and the use of other herbal medicineare being gradually accepted globally. In 2011,the International Medical University (IMU) startedthe Chinese Medicine programme which is the first ofits kind in a western medicine university in Malaysia.The author introduced the background of Chinesemedicine and the curriculum of the Chinese Medicineprogramme established in IMU, analyzed the situationregarding the quality of lectures given by internal andexternal lecturers in this programme and also discussedon ways to integrate western and traditional medicine inIMU or in Malaysia. The launching of Chinese medicinein IMU is a great step in the development of IMU andalso an important step in the development of medicaleducation in Malaysia or even in South-east Asia.