Chinese medicine pattern diagnosis could lead to innovation in medical sciences.

Chinese medicine (CM) pattern diagnosis (Bian zheng or syndrome differentiation), as another patient classification approach, has been incorporated with biomedicine diagnosis in clinical practice in China, and the clinical experience has proven that the integration of biomedicine and CM is better in the treatment of many diseases. CM pattern diagnosis is completely different from the diagnosis in biomedicine, and it must take an active role in innovation for medical sciences. This paper is trying to discuss how CM pattern diagnosis lead to innovations in basic research, clinical research and new drug discovery. Scientific basis of CM pattern in innovation of basic research, clinical efficacy and safety, CM pattern based clinical trial design, CM pattern and clinical practice guideline in innovation of clinical study, CM pattern based indication finding, and CM pattern based network pharmacology in innovation of new drug discovery have been discussed.