In 2015, the National Health Insurance of Korea paid about 2 billion dollars for medical services provided by 19,000 Korean Medicine (KM) doctors in 250 KM hospitals and 13,600 KM local clinics. The role of KM in health service is expected to expand for its efficacy since Korea is anticipated to be an aged society in 2018 and hyperaged society in 2026. Thus the evaluation of efficacy and safety of KM and improvement of its clinical skills has been emphasized recently.

The Korean medicine incorporates the same clinical techniques as East Asian traditional medicine; however, it also has typical characteristics such as Sa-am acupuncture, Sasang typology, Chuna therapy, pharmacopuncture, Korean psychotherapy, Do-In exercise therapy, and traditional music therapy. Modernized KM currently utilizes cutting-edge techniques of orthodox medicine, though it is rooted on the Donguibogam, one of the best Korean medical classics written in 1610 and enlisted on the Memory of the Word by UNESCO in 2009.

As for that reason integrative medical research is highlighted as a way of providing scientific evidence of Korean Medicine in many fields. For example, cytokine studies might be useful for evaluating the clinical efficacy of herbal medicine, magnetic resonance imaging for acupuncture, psychoneuroimmunologic effects for traditional treatments, and analysis on the biopsychosocial traits for Sasang typology. Approaches from integrative perspectives with experimental, translational, clinical, socioeconomic, and cross-cultural modalities would be welcomed.

In this special issue, we invite researchers to contribute original research articles, hypothesis, clinical techniques as well as comprehensive reviews dealing with the issues related to the scientific investigation on KM and its clinical application.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Interdisciplinary studies on herbal medicine and acupuncture
• Experimental study on phytotherapy and pharmacopuncture
• Novel and integrative translational research on KM
• Clinical efficacy of KM and its cross-cultural application
• Biopsychosocial approach on KM and Sasang typology
• Recent advances in KM diagnosis and treatment and its implication
• Reviews on cross-cultural and multidisciplinary application of KM
• Integrative studies on different kinds of traditional treatment approaches and clinical techniques
• Reviews on the educational system of KM
• Improvements in healthcare system, policy making, and public health