Introduction Traditional Chinese medicine guidelines (TCMG) have increased rapidly, yet many recommendations remain insufficiently implemented in practice. A key barrier is the lack of systematic, actionable, and context-adapted implementation strategies that reflect TCM theory and clinical settings.Theory Grounded in the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) framework, this study developed and prioritized implementation strategies for TCMG.Method This study used a two-phase mixed methods design. In Phase 1, seven Chinese and English databases were searched for TCMG and methodological studies published from 2019 to 2023. Implementation strategy descriptions were extracted using NVivo and mapped to ERIC to identify existing strategy use in the literature. In Phase 2, strategies not captured through literature mapping were first assessed by a multidisciplinary core panel and added to the candidate list when at least 60% of members supported both importance and feasibility; 35 external experts rated each candidate strategy using a 5-point Likert scale, and Go-zone analysis was used to determine strategy priority and recommendation strength.Results Fifty-one articles were included, comprising 34 TCMG and 17 methodological studies. Overall, 205 strategy descriptions were extracted and mapped to 26 ERIC strategies. The core panel added 10 strategies, yielding 36 candidate strategies. The final ERIC-TCMG comprised 27 implementation strategies, including 15 strong and 12 weak recommendations, mainly covering evaluative and iterative processes, stakeholder relationships, and training and education.Discussion ERIC-TCMG provides a structured resource for planning and adapting implementation strategies for TCMG and may inform guideline implementation in other traditional medicine or multicultural healthcare contexts.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.