Modern Western Medicine appears to have moved away from trying to cure diseases (allopathic—curative) unlike the traditional medical systems, and focuses on the palliative care—maintenance therapies, that which lessens pain, gives temporary relief, or suppresses the symptoms.
Modern Western Medicine's greatest strength is often acknowledged as its trauma care & therapies for acute problems, whilst Traditional Chinese Medicine, for example, excels in preventative medicine & areas of chronic problems.
MWM focuses on the blood, and acts only on the material substance of the body, its actual cells and chemicals (the Yin), whilst TCM concentrates on the Chi (bio-electric energy) and works with the energy that animates those very cells (the Yang).
MWM diagnoses and treats the material outcome that the disease has on the body itself, whilst TCM diagnoses and acts upon the energy that caused the disease in the first place.
TCM understands the placebo in terms of simply being a blockage in the flow of chi energy due to a small variety of factors—where the cause is not physical, but the symptoms are, whilst MWM labels these conditions 'idiopathic'—cause not known—as in the case of Irritable Bowl Syndrome, for example.
MWM seeks to identify the attacking agents of harm & cultivate weapons to fight them, whilst TCM focuses on the body's natural defence system, and tries to help increase its resistance capability.
TCM focuses on prevention, whilst MWM goes for reaction or counter-action of the illness, suppression or masking of the problem, and ignores one of Hippocrates own principal maxims—'Respect the Healing Power of Nature'.