IASTAM

Main Conference Keynote addresses, plenary sessions, panel discussions, and parallel tracks held across two full days.

#ABN2025: join IASTAM President @mstanleybaker.bsky.social
for Situating Practice: How to Build Congenial Epistemic Spaces for Productive Transdisciplinary Knowledge Exchange on Traditional Medicine.
abnconf2025.bioethics-singapore.gov.sg/programme/ma...

Discover Singapore’s Healing Heritage!

Explore how Traditional Chinese Medicine evolved from humble medical halls to innovative treatments at “Healing Heritage: A Journey Through the Evolution of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Singapore.”

singaporeccc.org.sg/media_room/h...

December 6–7

Yo San University presents Language as Medicine: Translation & Transmission in Chinese Medicine. A two-day virtual conference exploring how Classical Chinese medical wisdom lives on through translation and practice.

www.eventbrite.com/e/language-a...

Some fascinating seminars coming up (in-person only).

If you are interested in medicine, animal studies and ecology you can attend ‘Medicinal Animals’ in Crisis: A Three-Part Symposium online this week, hosted at NUS in Singapore.
@mstanleybaker.bsky.social @jimflowers.bsky.social

9 October 2025
14:00 – 17:00 (SGT)

ari.nus.edu.sg/events/20251...

Ministry of Ayush Inaugurates India’s First Integrative Oncology Research and Care Centre at AIIA Goa - This is, designed to bring together traditional and modern medical systems to offer patient-centric, evidence-informed oncology rehabilitation.

www.pib.gov.in/PressRelease...

18 reactions · 14 shares | Polyglot Asian Medicine 2.0 releases 72,000 new drug names in 12 South Asian Languages. Kudos to Chris Khoo and 黃嘉宏, power developers, and also to Varuna Subramanya at TDU... Polyglot Asian Medicine 2.0 releases 72,000 new drug names in 12 South Asian Languages. Kudos to Chris Khoo and 黃嘉宏, power developers, and also to Varuna Subramanya at TDU Bengaluru for providing...

As President of IASTAM, Michael Stanley-Baker @mstanleybaker.bsky.social has released a remarkable cache of drug names linking 12 South Asian languages with Malay and Chinese. A major step forward for cross-regional research on medical traditions.

www.facebook.com/reel/1079535...

CNA938 Rewind - Traditional Chinese Medicine no longer just an alternative Singapore is evaluating 18 proposals under a sandbox initiative to incorporate certain traditional Chinese medicine treatments into public healthcare. Andrea Heng and Hairianto Diman chat with Yang Mi...

Singapore is testing 18 proposals to bring TCM into public healthcare.

Andrea Heng & Hairianto Diman chat with NTU’s Yang Mingxiao on what it’ll take to make this trial succeed.

www.channelnewsasia.com/listen/cna93...

Panel 2 @ #MAE2025 (Vienna, Sept 18): Engaging Plurality, Negotiating Diversity 🌿
Bringing together scholars on Tibetan, Himalayan & Mongolian Sowa Rigpa traditions.

Info: mae.univie.ac.at/.../Panel_02...

Organized by Stephan Kloos & Barbara Gerke

Online registration:

Yin, Yang, and Machine Learning: The Convergence of TCM and AI - Digest by The HEAD Foundation Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a form of complementary medicine that was first developed over two thousand years ago. The TCM concepts, such as ‘Yin’(阴) and ‘Yang’(阳), that are used to describe...

Yin, Yang, and Machine Learning: The Convergence of TCM and AI

digest.headfoundation.org/2024/07/10/y...

Belated update: The 21st International Congress of Oriental Medicine (ICOM) took place in Taiwan on Aug 30–31, 2025.

Theme: “Traditional Medicine: From Evidence-based to Integrative Medicine.”
IASTAM VP James Flowers and members attended.

www.2025icom.org.tw/icom.php?cat...

NIKOM and South Korea’s Health Ministry host the Intl. Symposium on Traditional Medicine, Sept 9–10, 2025.

Theme: Korean Medicine + AI = The Future of Traditional Medicine.

Watch live on YouTube!

Visit the official website here: koreanmedicine.org/pages/sub.ht...

Modern pharmacology struggles to explain why people respond differently to the same drug. A new paper uses Ayurvedic principles and the Co.M.S. framework to shed light on drug behavior.
doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

Integrating traditional Chinese medicine into disease management in Singapore - Annals Singapore Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) was introduced to the Singapore population by early Chinese immigrants from China.1 During Singapore’s colonial era,

High-quality clinical trials and cohort studies demonstrate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine treatments using acupuncture and Chinese Proprietary Medicines (CPMs) for chronic and non-chronic diseases in Singapore.

annals.edu.sg/integrating-...

IASTAM’s member Sarah Rivkin @salliebklyn.bsky.social joins Qiological’s Michael Max to discuss translation as clinical practice where every word carries weight, diagnosis is translation, and the translator’s lens shapes both scholarship and clinical practice. www.qiological.com/language-as-...

Dr. Theresia Hofer will speak on “Deaf and Disability Activism in Tibet and the Himalayas”.

29 Aug 2025, 1–2:30pm
NTU, School of Humanities, Meeting Room 2 (03-93)

Drawing on two decades of fieldwork, she explores disability rights, sign language politics, and activism in Tibet, Bhutan & Nepal.

First Independence Day, first medicinal farmer show 79th Independence Day today will be the first I-Day in Delhi for medicinal farmers coming as special guests from all corners of India.

🇮🇳 This Independence Day, for the first time, 150 medicinal-plant farmers were honored as special guests in Delhi. The Ministry of Ayush hosted them, highlighting the growing role of herbal agriculture in India’s future. 🌿

indianexpress.com/article/citi...

Frontiers | A Quantitative Comparative Analysis of the Four Medical Tantras of Tibetan Medicine and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā of Ayurveda: A Focus on Diet, Medicinal Materials, and Preparations Aim of the study: This study aims to reveal and compare the use of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations as therapeutic means in the Four Medical Tant...

An interesting new study compares the use of diets, medicinal materials, and preparations in the Four Medical Tantras of Tibetan Medicine and the Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdaya Saṃhitā of Ayurveda. The final article will be published soon but you can sign up to be notified here:
www.frontiersin.org/journals/pha...

That’s a Lot of Needles in Your Face

Cosmetic acupuncture is becoming a popular alternative to Botox and other fillers for those looking for drug-free beauty treatments, as reported by The New York Times.
See link to the full story in the comments👇

What do you think of this #notox trend?
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/s...

@piercesalguero.bsky.social Therapy, contemplative practice, spirituality, energy work, life-coaching, intellectual learning.... it doesn't really matter where you start, just keep going.

WHO, ITU, WIPO showcase a new report on AI use in traditional medicine At the AI for Good Global Summit, the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released a new technical...

At the 'AI for Good' Global Summit, WHO, ITU, and WIPO released a new technical brief, mapping the application AI traditional medicine - a roadmap harnessing this potential responsibly while safeguarding cultural heritage and data sovereignty.
www.who.int/news/item/11...

New study out on the history of Chinese medicine in Singapore. Congratulations Dr Yang Yan (NUS Chinese Studies).

fass.nus.edu.sg/srn/2025/06/...

New podcast on the potential harms of meditation. The ancient traditions and modern psychology agree - that there are risks in the practice, which should be undertaken attentively.

blackberyl.substack.com/p/39-when-me...

2nd Vienna Academic Writing Workshop on 'Writing about Calamities in Cross-Cultural Contexts: Epidemics, End-of-Life Crises & Climate Disasters in Tibet and South Asia—Historical and Contemporary Perspectives'

Evaluating the role of large language models in traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment recommendations - npj Digital Medicine npj Digital Medicine - Evaluating the role of large language models in traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment recommendations

A new study evaluated 7 large language models for TCM diagnostic and treatment performance using a real-world acupuncture case, comparing their outputs with three professional acupuncturists across five domains:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Southeast Asian History Young and research intensive, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) is ranked among the world’s top universities. The School of Humanities (SoH) at NTU Singapore is committed to ...

Open position in South East Asian History at Nanyang Technological University.

ntu.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/Careers/job/...

Meconopsis Horridula Sowa Rigpa - Consensus Danggui, also known as Angelica sinensis or Chinese Angelica root, is a key herb in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), especially valued for its use in women’s health, blood-related conditions, and a...

New AI-driven search tool provides automated summaries about traditional medicines in scientific literature. While not comprehensive, and still black-boxed, this could be useful to kick-start new research.

consensus.app/search/mecon...

Found! An Old Medical History Manuscript, Author Now Known

tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2025/07/foun...