24 January to 1 February 2019, the 144th meeting of WHO Executive Board was held in Geneva, Switzerland. As a Non State Actor in official relations with WHO, WFAS was invited to send a delegation consisting of Vice President Aldo Liguori, EC Member Filomena Petti and Sergio Bangrazi from Italy, Vice President Ramon Calduch and Yue Ling Chen from Spain, and Vice Secretary-General Hu Weiguo.

The Executive Board reviewed the report by the Director-General, report of the regional committees to the Executive Board, proposed programme budget 2020–2021, etc., and discussed issues including public health preparedness and response, universal health coverage, implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and many others.

Traditional Medicine was stressed in the report by the Director-General on the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases or ICD-11 (EB144/22). It stated “ICD-11 includes a supplementary chapter (Traditional medicine conditions – Module 1), which classifies traditional medicine conditions that originated in ancient China and are now commonly used in China, Japan, Republic of Korea and other countries. These categories are intended for optional dual coding of traditional medicine diagnoses and patterns. They do not refer to – nor endorse any form of treatment. Additional modules classifying diagnostic concepts of other standardized forms of traditional medicine may be developed in the future. The inclusion of a supplementary chapter on traditional medicine in ICD will for the first time enable counting of traditional medicine services and encounters, measurement of their form, frequency, effectiveness, safety, quality, outcomes, cost, comparison with mainstream medicine and research due to standardized terms and definitions nationally and internationally.”

The Executive Board also reviewed and approved the Report of Collaboration for 2016-2018 and the Plan of Collaboration for 2019-2021 between WFAS and WHO, appreciated the past collaboration and decided to renew WFAS in official relations with WHO. This is the eighth term of collaboration since WHO established official relations with WFAS in 1998. 

Decision EB144(5) made by the 144th session of WHO Executive Board

During the meeting, WFAS delegates also met with several WHO officials and delegates from different countries including Dr. Zhang Qi, Director of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Unit (TCM) of WHO, and Mr. Lu Yexin from China's State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. They exchanged views towards ICD-11, status and challenges of TCM acupuncture-moxibustion as well as traditional/complementary medicine in various countries and so on.

WFAS Vice President Ramon Calduch (right) and Dr Zhang Qi (left), Director of Traditional and Complementary Medicine Unit (TCM) of WHO

 WFAS Vice President Ramon Calduch (left) and Mr. Lu Yexin (right) from China's State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine