Iranian medicine is an ancient medical school with history of thousands of years. Culmination of the Islamic culture led to growth and prosperity of the school. However, the school currently does not have a global spread and is mostly known in the countries lying in the realm of ancient Iran, including India and Arabic countries, with other names. In contrast, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has received world acceptance, and currently has an international spread such that it is taught and clinically used in the five continents. Due to the historical neighborhood, Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM) and TCM have some common concepts and probably had bilateral effects on each other.
These two schools of medicine have some similarities and differences in foundations on the basis of the ancient cultures of Iran and China. However, it is important to investigate the strategies and trends the TCM have passed to become global. Then, the experience can be used to spread the TIM. It seems that the following strategies are helpful to put this goal into action:
1- Collection of ancient texts and treatments currently available in folklore,
2- Developing academic education of the TIM,
3- Carrying out scientific studies to confirm the methods and treatments,
4- Integration of TIM and modern medicine and establishing integrated health centers, and
5- Employment of scientifically approved treatments of the TIM in the primary health care system.
In this paper, some aspects of the TCM were clarified and the factors effective in its global spread were concerned. In the following, it is suggested that these methods and strategies be selected to achieve worldwide spread of the TIM.