Contemporary scientific research of traditional Chinese medicine has the following characteristics: the combination of traditional research methods and modern scientific methods. The commonly used research methods include clinical observation, animal model and experiment, epidemiological investigation, philology, logic, mathematical statistics, computer, scientific abstraction and hypothesis establishment.

In recent years, people pay more attention to absorbing modern science, technology and methods. For example, molecular biology is used to study the mechanism of action of traditional Chinese medicine or prescription, hemorheology is used to study blood stasis and blood circulation, and radionuclide is used to study meridians and so on.