Welcome to the Americas Region! This region includes 35 Member States and 4 Associate Members. There is a great diversity of healing systems and practices in the Americas, with each country having its own recognized and institutionalized practices. The inclusion of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) in national health systems is part of efforts to improve people-centered health services and achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for marginalized populations. Interculturality and therapeutic pluralism are key components of the region’s TCIM efforts.
Welcome remarks from the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
TM WHO Summit – TV Streaming
Cultural Diversity and Health
Since the 1990s – Indigenous Peoples Initiative – PAHO has been a global leader in recognizing the inextricable link between culture and health and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and other ethnic groups to their healing traditions.
PAHO Member States adopted by consensus the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, followed by a related regional Strategy and Action Plan.
Windows of Knowledge
Virtual Health Library (VHL) for Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine
The VHL TCIM Americas is a collaborative virtual space that aims to promote the visibility, access, use, and publication of scientific, technical, and educational content to contribute to the promotion, development, and integration of TCIM into health care services and systems in the Americas Region through the collaboration of stakeholders.
Americas Region´s Posters
The posters exhibit displays TCIM integration in national health systems experiences, programs, and research results, institutional and collaborative initiatives in the Americas Region. We invite you to visit the posters in each of the three categories below.
Governmental Initiatives
Research / Academia
Networks / Collaborative Initiatives
Participation of AMRO - PAHO in the Summit
11:15 – 12:30 – PLENARY SESSION 1: Planetary Health and Well-Being for All – Learning from Indigenous Knowledges and Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Health Systems (TCIH)
- An Indigenous roadmap for addressing the Climate and Biodiversity crises: Lessons from Indigenous Traditional knowledge systems
- Dr Nicole Redvers, Western Research Chair & Director, Indigenous Planetary Health, Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health, University of Western Ontario, Canada (Speaker)
- Transforming Health Care to create whole Health: learning from the U.S. Veterans Health Administration model
- Dr Tracy Gaudet, Co-Founder of the Cornerstone Collaboration for Societal Change. Formerly the founding Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration’s National Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, United States of America (Speaker)
- Participant Discussion
- Dr Jonás Gonseth-García, Advisor, Quality in Health Systems and Services, PAHO/WHO
- Concluding Remarks
- Mr Ricardo Weibe Nascimento Costa, Indigenous Health Secretariat of the Ministry of Health, Brazil
13:35 – 14:50 – PARALLEL SESSION 1A – Mapping of evidence: what we know, and how do we learn more?
- Evidence maps on the clinical effectiveness of traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine
- Dr João Paulo Souza, Director, BIREME/PAHO/WHO (Speaker)
16:40 – 18:00 – PARALLEL SESSION 2A – Data and routine information systems
- Best practice-Americas Region of WHO
- Dr Jonás Gonseth-García, Advisor, Quality in Health Systems and Services, PAHO/WHO (Speaker)
9:00 – 19:30 – AMRO Exhibition Hall
10:00 – 11:15 – PLENARY 3: Digital Health Frontiers and Safeguards
- Participant Discussion
- Dr Jonás Gonseth-García, Advisor, Quality in Health Systems and Services, PAHO/WHO
11:45 – 13:00 – PLENARY 4: Integrative Health for Well – Being at all ages
- Introduction and Welcome
- Dr Ricardo Ghelman, Chair, Brazilian Academic Consortium for Integrative Health (CABSIN), Brazil (Moderator)
14:05 – 15:20 – PARALLEL SESSION 3-A – Policy and Regulatory Landscapes
- Introduction and Welcome
- Dr Obijiofor Aginam, Principal Visiting Fellow at UNU-IIGH, and Adjunct Research Professor of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
- Legal frameworks for regulatory approval of multi-ingredient, multi-target natural products
- Dr. Ikhlas Khan, Director, National Centre for Natural Products Research, University of Mississippi, United States of America (Panelist)
- Mr Roy Upton, President and Editor, American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (a non-profit, NGO), United States of America (Panelist)
- The minimum criteria and requirement for a global regulatory framework for herbal medicines
- Dr Charles Wu, Master Pharmacognosy/Pharmacology Reviewer, and Botanical Review Team Lead, Office of Pharmaceutical Quality, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration, United States of America (Video statement)
14:05 – 15:20 – PARALLEL SESSION 3-B – Biodiversity, Onde Health, and Traditional Medicine
- Action points for WHO and Member states to identify, conserve, validate and implement traditional practices to sustain biodiversity and promote planetary health
- Dr Olivier Rukundo, Senior Programme Management Officer and Head of Unit, Peoples and Biodiversity, United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, Canada (Discussant)
16:30 – 17:30 – PLENARY SESSION 5 – Summit Declaration and Valedictory Session
9:00 – 19:30 – AMRO Exhibition Hall
Partner Institutions
Discover a range of Institutions operating at Regional, Subregional, and National levels actively involved in shaping TCIM practices, generating evidence, and compiling health information in the field.
SCAN ME!