Darina Sedlakova, MD, MPH, Head of World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in the Slovak Republic accepted our invitation and will address conference participants during the opening ceremony. 

WHO considers Traditional Medicine to be an important tool of health maintenance. Since 2002 it prepares, renews and gradually implements the Strategy for Traditional Medicine. The goal of this strategy is to raise awareness about the potential contribution of TM to health, wellness and people-centred health care. At the same time it is promoting the safe and effective use of TM by regulating, researching and integrating TM products, practitioners and practice into health systems, where appropriate.

For the purposes of the WHO, Traditional Medicine is defined as follows: Traditional Medicine has a long history. It is the sum total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.