Chinese patent herbal medicines (CPHMs) are ready-made prescriptions that have been manufactured into proprietary products in various dosage forms, similar to those of western drugs. China has long been eager to export its herbal products to the West. However, very little progress has been made in this respect, especially in the U.S. market, even though efforts for promoting the Chinese herbal medicines to the world market have been going on for years. Meanwhile, health care providers, researchers, and policy analysts in the United States suggest providing more information on the safety and efficacy of herbal products already used in the market. More and more databases on single herb, herbal extracts, and ingredients are now available, but there is no database on multi-herb preparations such as CPHMs, leaving this area unsupported. This thesis proposes a digital infrastructure for CPHMs through US-China collaboration to meet the need for expansion of the market share of CPHMs from China and ensure the safety and efficacy of using CPHMs in the United States. The thesis contains three parts.;Part 1 reviews CPHMs in China, including the regulation, market, industry, usage pattern, developments as drugs, and numerous databases. In the 1990s and early 2000, many negative reports were published on the quality, safety, and efficacy of Chinese herbal medicines. To restore the local and global faith in herbal medicines, the latest efforts are encouraging more international collaborations and adopting international standards on research and regulation. More rigorous evidence is reaching publication, with some in English or translated into English.;Part 2 reviews herbal products in the United States, including regulation, unique usage pattern, industry, customers, and healthcare providers. It then highlights the reasons for low market penetration of Chinese herbal medicine, especially CPHMs in the United States. In addition to concerns of quality, safety, and efficacy of herbal products, the lack of trustful and readily accessible information is also addressed.;Part 3 analyzes the best features of currently available databases from federal agencies, academia, and commercial organizations. In response to the obstacles for expanding market penetration of herbal products, part 3 provides the key components of the proposed digital infrastructure by incorporating updated data from China. Finally, part 3 also discusses the actionable implementation and how this digital infrastructure would benefit the Chinese CPHM industry as well as customers, health care providers, and the health care system in the United States.;In summary, in the era of information technology, building a digital infrastructure for CPHMs is expected to not only increase the market share of CPHMs from China, but also to improve population health through informed decision-making for using herbal products and better communication among different healthcare providers as well as between healthcare providers and customers in the United States.
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