World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies Guideline for Application of New Work Item Proposal of 2026 ISO/TC249 International Standard

       Standardization facilitates economic and trade exchanges, supports industrial development, promotes scientific and technological progress, and standardizes social governance. International standards are important technical basis for the development of global systems and economic and trade cooperation. The Constitution of World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies stipulates that “the Federation is to concentrate on the study, formulation, publication and promotion of the international organizational standards relevant to Chinese medicine and pharmacy; to cooperate with relevant international standardization agencies to expand the influence and promotion of the standards; to regulate the administration of Chinese medicine and pharmacy, to enhance the international status of Chinese medicine and pharmacy and in order to develop Chinese medicine and pharmacy in all countries (and regions) in a healthy and orderly way."

       Found in 2003, World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies has been promoting the construction of international standardization of Chinese medicine as an important task. At present, the federation has issued 165 standards and actively participated in the ISO and WHO activities, playing an important role in the international standardization of Chinese medicine.

       International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the world’s largest standard-setter, established the Technical Committee on Chinese Medicine in 2009 (ISO/TC 249) and now changed to Technical Committee on Traditional Medicine. ISO focuses on the standards related to international trade. Then, WFCMS became an A-level liaison organization of the ISO/TC 249 in 2010 and has the right to submit new work item proposals directly to the ISO/TC 249/SC 1 and invite experts to work on the development of international standards of Chinese medicine and participate in various conferences. WFCMS has submitted 48 proposals to the ISO/TC 249 up to now, including proposals on terminology, management, TCM service, products, etc. Over 40 experts registered in ISO/TC 249 and arrange delegations to participate actively in the annual meeting.

       To carry out the responsibility of A-level liaison organization actively and support the development of ISO/TC 249, WFCMS is now collecting all the applications of new work item proposals from the members of WFCMS, specialty (working) committee, development committee and global TCM experts to summit to ISO/TC 249 in 2026 and register as international standard of WFCMS as appropriate.

I.    Overall objectives

New work item proposals closely related to TCM products, trade and services in line the scope of ISO/TC 249/SC 1 are the top priorities, to support trade and industrial development and technological progress.

II.  Priorities

1. TCM medicinal products

2. TCM electormedical devices/apparatus

3. TCM Terminology & Informatics

4. AI technology in TCM

III.  Procedures

1. Application

Please send the application information collection form to wfcms_isd@163.com before the date of December 5, 2025. Please mail all the paper materials with two copies to Department of International Standardization, WFCMS before December 10, 2025 and send all electrical edition to wfcms_isd@163.com at the same time. All the new work items should be proposals with a project leader (PL) only registered from WFCMS. Co-PLs are needed and each ISO national body can propose only one representative as a Co-PL who should be already registered in corresponding WG. PLs of a proposal shall come from at least two countries and can simply apply for at the maximum of two proposals in this year. Please submit your proposal(s) only in one access. Other documents needed can be in the attachment.

2. Review

Department of International Standardization, WFCMS organizes experts to review all the proposals after checking all the application materials needed. The outcome is to be reported to all the applicants as soon as possible.

3. Review opinions and feedback

For proposals submitting to ISO/TC 249, applicants shall revise the forms based on experts’ review opinions and submit all the revised materials to Department of International Standardization of WFCMS as soon as possible. One or two experts from each proposal can be registered in ISO/TC 249/SC 1 as expert from A-liaison organization to receive information and documents and attend annual meeting.

Those that are not recommended for submitting to ISO/TC 249/SC 1 will be listed in WFCMS standard base after revising all the materials with the review opinions.

4. Project management

All the projects submitting to ISO/TC 249/SC 1 secretariat shall be under the management and supervision of Department of International Standardization of WFCMS. The corresponding regulations will be formulated by Department of International Standardization of WFCMS.

IV．Contact information

Department of International Standardization, WFCMS

Contactors:  Yang Liwen, Wang Lili

Tel: 86-10-58650190     86-10-58650051     

Email: wfcms_isd@163.com 

Attachment:

Application forms and references for New Work Item Proposal of 2026 ISO/TC249 International Standard

World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies

November 18, 2025