In a Time feature titled "Cleveland Clinic’s New Medicine," Alexandra Sifferlin writes about the Cleveland Clinic's nonconforming efforts to incorporate Eastern herbal medicine with traditional Western medical practices.

"Though herbal therapy has been practiced in China for centuries, it is still an afterthought in the U.S., in part because pharmaceutical remedies are usually easier to obtain," Sifferlin writes. "Now that’s beginning to change: in January, the Cleveland Clinic opened a Chinese herbal-therapy ward."

In this small division, therapists at the clinic treat patients suffering from chronic pain, fatigue, poor digestion, infertility and sleep disorders.

“Western medicine may not have all the answers,” Daniel Neides, the clinic’s medical director, is quoted in the piece.

A certified herbalist runs the unit under the supervision of Western-trained doctors. Patients must be referred to the clinic by their doctor, who must oversee their treatment for at least a year.

Executives at the Cleveland Clinic say the clinic "is the first of its kind to be affiliated with a Western hospital."

“We’re incorporating ancient knowledge into patient care,” says in-house herbalist Galina Roofener.

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