Hybrid medical professionals and the selective intelligibility of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Cameroon.

The global expansion of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has intensified its circulation across plural healthcare systems. However, researchers still know little about how it becomes clinically intelligible within contexts structured by biomedical dominance. This article examines how hybrid medical professionals mediate the integration of TCM in Cameroon. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted between 2024 and 2025 in Yaoundé, Douala, Guider, and Mbalmayo, the analysis is based on 40 semi-structured interviews with hybrid medical professionals, Chinese practitioners, patients, and health administrators, complemented by field observations. The findings show that the integration of TCM is shaped by processes of selective intelligibility rather than straightforward knowledge transfer. Hybrid practitioners do not simply translate between medical systems; they actively reconfigure TCM through epistemic translation, therapeutic adaptation, and legitimacy negotiation. Through these practices, they render certain elements of TCM clinically meaningful and institutionally actionable while transforming, marginalizing, or excluding others. The findings demonstrate that asymmetrical epistemic relations structure medical pluralism, with biomedical frameworks shaping what counts as legitimate knowledge. By conceptualizing selective intelligibility as a mechanism through which actors differentially render transnational medical knowledge intelligible, actionable, and legitimate, this article contributes to debates on knowledge translation, medical pluralism, and global health. More broadly, it highlights the role of epistemic power in shaping the clinical integration of transnational medical systems.