International patient registry on acupuncture therapy for premature ovarian insufficiency: challenges and opportunities

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) affects seriously physical and mental health of the patients. Studies show that acupuncture may be promising in treating POI, yet evidence is insufficient. International patient registry, one form of observational study, is designed for evaluating effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in real-world clinical settings. We will face a series of opportunities and challenges. The opportunities are as follows: (1) Interdisciplinary cooperation can improve the effect of acupuncture for POI. (2) The protocol for acupuncture to treat POI has room for improvement. (3) The patient registry study can make up the shortcomings of randomized controlled trials. (4) The patient registry study can collect real-world data and explore responses of different populations to acupuncture and can be the foundation for the successive studies. International patient registry may face technological, ethical and financial challenges, while the established International Patient Registry Platform of Acupuncture-Moxibustion (www.amreg.org:8082/v3) is actively responding to these challenges. Till now there have been more than 300 patients of POI enrolled on this platform.