“Bringing greater research fluency into our educational vision”: A qualitative research study on improving Traditional Chinese Medicine research education

The main objective of this qualitative analysis is to increase the quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) research education. Subject matter experts and stakeholders were sent a list of possible topics to include in a research course and were asked to comment on it, add or subtract topics, and suggest appropriate research papers to use, lessons learned in their topic areas and possible stand-alone topics for inclusion in other courses. Their feedback was used to revise the topic list, create a list of foundational research papers to include in a research course and devise a list of stand-alone topics that could be included in the general TCM research curriculum. The result is a TCM research course curriculum that will improve the teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) practices to TCM students. This will help TCM faculty and program directors improve existing courses, develop new courses and strengthen EBM education.