• Mi Mi Ko, Bo-Young Kim, Mi Ju Son, Kyung Hwan Jegal, Won-Seok Chung, and Sungha Kim.
• KM Science Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Jun 10; 101 (23): e29407e29407.

IntroductionIn South Korea, the prevalence of obesity has continuously increased over the last decade, and the burden of social and economic costs has also increased immensely. The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical characteristics and current status of patients receiving herbal medicine (HM) treatment for weight loss in Korean medicine (KM) by constructing a multi-institutional prospective registry.Methods And AnalysisThis is a prospective, observational, multi-center registry, including patients visiting the KM clinics in South Korea for weight loss. This study will collaborate with 15 KM clinics and recruit patients into the registry between October 2021 and October 2022. The study population will include patients visiting the KM clinics for weight loss. A total of 1000 eligible patients visiting the KM clinics for weight loss who decide to undergo HM treatment will be enrolled in the registry. After enrollment, we will collect the individual characteristics of each patient, such as body mass index, body composition test, liver and kidney function tests, and information on prescribed HM. We will also record the adverse events at each visit.DiscussionThis study is the first prospective, multicenter registry of HM for weight loss in KM clinics. The results of this registry may show the current status of patients who receive HM treatments for weight loss and provide evidence for reasonable decision-making on KM healthcare policy for obese patients in the future.Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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