In case of illness two out of three Germans would prefer to be treated with a combination of Western and Chinese medicine, said a news release Thursday, citing a representative opinion poll published recently.
  
The poll done by the Institute for Demoscopy in Allensbach indicates that 61 percent of the German population would decide in favor of such a combined treatment, noted the news release sent to Xinhua Thursday by Gruppe M, a healthcare service.
  
The survey finds that only 18 percent of Germans would prefer a treatment with Traditional Western Medicine alone.
  
Nearly one third, or 31 percent, of the people asked had already been treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM): 26 percent of them with acupuncture and five percent with different Chinese treatment methods.
  
The poll also shows that the tread in Germany towards Chinese Medicine is more than a short-term fashion.
  
As many as 89 percent of people who had already experienced TCM are supporters of combined treatment. The percentage is distinctly higher than in the group of people who had not ever used TCM.
  
Professor Gustav Dobos from University Duisburg-Essen, the holder of the only German University-chair of Complementary and Integrative Medicine with a special focus on Chinese Medicine, said that the results indicate the great majority of people treated with TCM are obviously satisfied with the individual outcome of their therapy.
  
"I am convinced that in the future many German hospitals will have a department of Chinese Medicine," said Professor Dobos, adding "now it is important to create the necessary foundation for quality-assurance in Germany and establish closer ties to TCM institutions in the P. R. of China."

The University-chair of Complementary and Integrative Medicine with a special focus on Chinese Medicine was founded in October 2004 by the Alfried Krupp von Bhlen and Halbach-Foundation. Assigned by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Professor Dobos, who once studied in Beijing Chinese medicine in 1983, has been working on the project in recent years.

He is currently on a visit to China and gave a lecture at the Beijing University of TCM Monday on Complementary and Integrative medicine, which combines traditional European Medicine, US-Harvard developed Mind-Body Medicine and Chinese Medicine with Western Medicine.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2005)