History of Traditional Chinese Medicine
and Acupuncture in Slovenia
A State Programme Begins
Slovenia’s engagement with Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture began with one of Europe’s earliest structured national programmes. In the late 1970s, an official state initiative linked Yugoslav medicine with China, training physicians in acupuncture for more than a decade across hospitals and clinics. When Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s, that formal framework came to an end — but the knowledge and practice did not disappear. Instead, they evolved. What began as a service available only through medical doctors gradually transformed into a living tradition of Traditional Chinese Medicine open to the wider public through private practice. SZKMA continues this remarkable story today.
Individual interest in acupuncture was already growing among Yugoslav physicians in the early 1970s. By 1976 the practice had entered hospital settings: Dr. Jasna Müller established an acupuncture clinic in the anaesthesiology department of the University Medical Centre Ljubljana, while Dr. Zmago Turk did the same in the rehabilitation department of the General Hospital Maribor. Dr. Zmago Turk has remained one of the most consistent and respected advocates of acupuncture and integrative medicine in Slovenia for nearly five decades.
It was only after these pioneering hospital clinics that acupuncture received formal coordination at the Yugoslav level. In February 1978, Prim. Dr. Drago Plešivčnik — surgeon, director of the General Hospital Slovenj Gradec, and member of the Yugoslav Chamber of Republics and Provinces — organised the 1st Yugoslav Symposium on Traditional Chinese Medicine in Slovenj Gradec.
Holding the first Yugoslav symposium in Slovenj Gradec — rather than in Belgrade or Ljubljana — proved highly controversial at the federal level and nearly caused a political scandal. Nevertheless, with Slovenian backing the event proceeded and attracted senior representatives from China’s Ministry of Health together with specialists from all Yugoslav republics. The symposium led to the adoption of the Slovenjegraška deklaracija (Slovenj Gradec Declaration), which supported the formal recognition of acupuncture as a reimbursable health service later that year.
That same year, acupuncture was officially recognised in Yugoslavia as a reimbursable health service, placing the country among the earliest in Europe to take this step. Only France and the Soviet Union had acted significantly earlier. Yugoslavia’s recognition preceded similar developments in Italy, Switzerland, Germany’s public insurance system, and the United Kingdom by many years.
The symposium directly led to the first School of Acupuncture in Yugoslavia, held in Zagreb from January to March 1979 under Chinese instructors. Four physicians were sent from each republic. Slovenia’s delegation included Dr. Lojze Medved (Terme Portorož), Dr. Ivan Godina (Orthopaedic Clinic, Ljubljana), Dr. Zmago Turk (General Hospital Maribor), and Dr. Marija Cesar Komar (General Hospital Slovenj Gradec). Upon her return, Dr. Cesar Komar opened a dedicated pain clinic at Slovenj Gradec that same year.
Acupuncture soon spread into pain clinics across Slovenian hospitals, spa resorts, and rehabilitation centres. In 1980, the physicians involved founded the Slovenian Acupuncture Association under the Slovenian Medical Association (SZD), which continues to oversee training and professional development for doctors practising acupuncture.
Continuing Through the 1980s
Cooperation between Yugoslav and Chinese medical institutions remained active throughout the decade. In 1989, Dr. Li Furu (李福如) was sent to Yugoslavia by the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine under an official medical cooperation agreement with the Yugoslav Ministry of Health. Like earlier Chinese experts, he came to train medical doctors.
A second path was already open outside that physicians-only programme. Jani Osojnik, a University of Ljubljana graduate in psychology who had also studied Chinese, biology and preparatory biochemistry, left for China in 1980. He spent six years in formal training, completing a postgraduate course in Chinese at Guangzhou College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1985 (now Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine) and a further postgraduate year at Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1986 (now Beijing University of Chinese Medicine). In 1988 he received a master’s title in traditional Chinese medicine from the University of Ljubljana. In 1989 — the same year Dr. Li Furu arrived to teach doctors — he opened a private practice in Ljubljana, Preventivno zeliščno in akupresurno svetovanje, offering whole-system Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture in private practice rather than inside the hospital system.
After Yugoslavia: From State Programme to Private Practice
The breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s brought the official state programme to a close. What remained were two related but distinct lines: acupuncture practised by medical doctors in hospitals and pain clinics, and Traditional Chinese Medicine practised only in private clinics. There was never a public TCM service.
Dr. Li Furu, who had arrived under the state programme, remained in the region and eventually settled in Slovenia. There he moved from official, physicians-only instruction into private teaching. His courses introduced elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine beyond hospital acupuncture, though the teaching itself remained relatively superficial because he lacked a professional team and resources. The generation he trained — doctors, sinologists and therapists among them — went on to study Traditional Chinese Medicine further or to establish their own practices. Many of today’s TCM practitioners in Slovenia can trace at least part of their professional lineage to him. Dr. Li Furu now serves as Honorary President of SZKMA.
Alongside that teaching, Slovenian practitioners who had trained in China continued in private practice. In 1993 Jani Osojnik co-authored the professional monograph Tradicionalna kitajska medicina in akupunktura. Del 1 with Primož Rožman, published in Ljubljana by Slovensko društvo za orientalno medicino (COBISS.SI-ID 33839360) — the earliest Slovenian-language handbooks of the field. He also argued for a Slovenian name for the work. In a letter in Delo’s Sobotna priloga on 20 December 2003 he wrote that he had for years held zdravilstvo to be the proper Slovenian word for treating illness and preserving health, and that splitting a higher “medicine” from a lesser “zdravilstvo” was a false distinction. The Healing Practices Act of 2007 later made zdravilec the licensed professional title.
Many highly educated TCM practitioners from abroad also chose to build their professional lives in Slovenia. Working with local colleagues and therapists, they gradually overcame language and cultural barriers. Over the decades, that collaboration and consistent, patient-centred care helped them earn the trust of Slovenian patients and establish Traditional Chinese Medicine as a respected part of private healthcare.
A Growing Profession
In the years that followed, the private TCM community expanded across Slovenia along both of these lines: the teaching tradition of Dr. Li Furu, and practices founded by Slovenians trained in China, of which Jani Osojnik’s Ljubljana clinic is the earliest continuous example. Patient interest grew steadily as Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture gained wider recognition within integrative medicine across Europe.
The Founding of SZKMA (2019)
Slovenia on the European Stage
In 2019, SZKMA — the Slovenian Association for Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture — was established as Slovenia’s first professional association dedicated specifically to Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture. It brought practitioners together around shared standards of education and practice and began working to ensure patients have access to safe, high-quality, evidence-informed care.
SZKMA quickly became a member of ETCMA (the European Traditional Chinese Medicine Association) by meeting the education requirements and also joined EUROCAM, the European umbrella organisation for complementary and alternative medicine. It went on to lead the drafting of the ETCMA Core Competencies for Chinese Medicine Practitioners — a pan-European professional standard now recommended to member associations across the continent.
Where Things Stand Today
The two strands of this history operate under different regulatory frameworks today. Acupuncture provided by medical doctors continues within Slovenia’s conventional healthcare system. Traditional Chinese Medicine in its broader form — including tuina, comprehensive TCM diagnostics, and practice by non-physicians — falls under Slovenia’s Healing Practices Act (Zakon o zdravilstvu), adopted in 2007, which created the legal category of healing activity (zdravilska dejavnost).
Nearly two decades later, some of the law’s key implementing mechanisms, particularly the professional chamber intended to set and oversee standards, have still not been established. SZKMA continues to advocate for the full implementation of the law, drawing on the ETCMA Core Competencies and the World Health Organization’s Global Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034. Its goal is clear: to ensure that patients in Slovenia can access clearly regulated, quality-assured Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture care.
A Living Legacy
What began as a single state programme linking Yugoslav medicine to China has become, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, two living traditions. Acupuncture practised by medical doctors continues in Slovenia’s hospitals and pain clinics. Traditional Chinese Medicine, never a public service, continues only in private practice: in clinics founded by Slovenians who trained in China, of which Jani Osojnik’s Ljubljana practice is the earliest continuous example, and in the teaching line of Dr. Li Furu (李福如), whose courses introduced the wider system and whose students often went on to train further. SZKMA continues this private tradition today, working to build a clearly regulated, high-quality profession that serves the patients who rely on it.
References
-
Cesar Komar, M. (2009). Akupunktura. ISIS – Glasilo Zdravniške zbornice Slovenije, 2009 (št. 3), str. 67–68.
-
Cesar Komar, M. (2019). Zgodovinski razvoj akupunkturne terapije v svetu in Sloveniji. ISIS – Glasilo Zdravniške zbornice Slovenije, maj 2019 (št. 5), str. 57–59.
-
Turk, Z. (2021). Prim. prof. dr. Zmago Turk, dr. med.: Gre za to, da je v integrativni medicini izjemen potencial. Vizita.si, maj 2021.
-
DELO, Sobotna priloga, PP29, 20. december 2003, Jani Osojnik: Odziv na »Bi si kdo upal graditi most na alternativni način?« (Delo, 12. decembra 2003)