Prescription system to calculate precise doses of Chinese herbal medicine to avoid toxic effects

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a therapeutic system which has been practiced for thousands of years. Although for much of its history the decoction of medicinal herbs was the most common method of consuming the herbal treatments, TCM prescriptions are now primarily prepared using concentrated Chinese herbal extracts (CCHE) in powder or granular form. However, determining the precise dose of each single Chinese herbal constituent within a prescription creates a challenge in clinical practice due to the potential risk of toxicity. To alleviate this, we invented the Chinese Intelligence Prescription System (CIPS) to calculate the exact dose of each single herb within an individual prescription. METHODS: In this study, we applied CIPS in a real-world setting to analyze clinical prescriptions collected and prepared at the TCM Pharmacy of China Medical University Hospital (CMUH). RESULTS: Our investigation revealed that 3% of all prescriptions filled in a 1-month period contained inexact dosages, suggesting that more than 170,000 prescriptions filled in Taiwan in a given month may contain potentially toxic components. We further analyzed the data to determine the excess dosages and outline the possible associated side effects. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, CIPS offers TCM practitioners the ability to prepare exact Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) prescriptions in order to avoid toxic effects, thereby ensuring patient safety.