Top health officials from the U.S. and China have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on research of integrative and traditional Chinese medicine. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt joined Chinese Vice Minister of Health Wang Guoqiang to formalize the understanding, which marked the opening of a two-day traditional Chinese medicine “Research Roundtable” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD. The roundtable featured scientific presentations by researchers from China and the U.S. on topics that included the synthesis of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine; criteria for evaluating traditional Chinese medicine practices; and the application of modern scientific tools such as proteomics (the study of proteins) to the study of traditional Chinese medicine. “This project will advance our understanding of when and how to appropriately integrate traditional Chinese medicine with Western medical approaches to improve the health of the American and Chinese people,” Mr. Leavitt said.