Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:  

The complementary and coordinated development of TCM and Western medicine is a notable advantage in China's health care system. What achievements have been made in promoting their coordinated development to better serve public health? Thank you.

Yu Yanhong:

Thank you for this excellent question. Both TCM and Western medicine have their unique strengths. When facing challenging diseases affecting public health, both serve as powerful tools for treatment and prevention. The integration of TCM and Western medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened our understanding of their combined potential. The NHC and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine consistently emphasize the importance of both approaches. We focus on continuously highlighting and amplifying the significant advantage of the complementary and coordinated development of TCM and Western medicine in advancing the Healthy China Initiative.. We've implemented a project to promote their coordination, launching a series of initiatives in areas such as mechanism development, model innovation, and talent support. These combined efforts have yielded significant results.

On the one hand, we've continuously strengthened the coordination system and mechanisms between TCM and Western medicine. As part of institutional reforms, the NATCM established a dedicated department for integrating TCM, Western medicine and ethnic minority medicine, coordinating these efforts at the national level. Together with the NHC, we have made special arrangements for TCM in general hospitals, launching actions to enhance the collaborative development of Chinese and Western medicine in these facilities. This initiative encourages general hospitals, specialized hospitals, and maternal and child health institutions to develop an integration model characterized by established mechanisms, dedicated teams, effective measures and tangible outcomes. Currently, many general hospitals have established mechanisms for the coordinated development of traditional Chinese and Western medicine and multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment systems. Focusing on key diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and pediatric diseases, Chinese and Western medical practitioners conduct joint rounds and consultations, collaboratively formulating diagnosis and treatment plans. This approach has significantly improved clinical efficacy.

On the other hand, the collaborative service capabilities of TCM and Western medicine continue to improve. More than 90% of public general hospitals at Grade II and above have established TCM clinical departments. For the first time nationwide, 62 "flagship" hospitals and 559 "flagship" departments for TCM and Western medicine collaboration have been selected, creating model examples of this integration. Many well-known hospitals, such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and Peking University First Hospital, are leading and promoting this work. Focusing on major and difficult diseases that seriously affect people's health, such as severe pancreatitis, chronic stable coronary heart disease, and cancer, efforts have been made to tackle these issues through collaboration between TCM and Western medicine. The combined treatment of TCM and Western medicine has significantly improved clinical efficacy. To date, we have promoted the release of the first batch of 52 clinical diagnosis and treatment plans integrating TCM and Western medicine, and over 150 new clinical cooperation projects focusing on major and difficult diseases have been selected. We are actively exploring new ideas, methods, and models that integrate TCM and Western medicine for disease prevention and treatment. This allows us to offer the public more effective treatment plans that combine the advantages of both approaches.

At the same time, we're strengthening the role of professionals trained in both TCM and Western medicine. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, we're piloting a nine-year integrated TCM and Western medicine education program and introducing mandatory TCM courses in undergraduate clinical medicine curricula. We're actively promoting TCM education for Western medicine practitioners. At the national level, we've launched high-level training initiatives, including the New Era Advanced Talent Program for Western medicine practitioners learning TCM. At the provincial level, we are also conducting specialized TCM training programs for Western medicine practitioners. To date, over 220,000 individuals have participated in these programs, significantly expanding our pool of integrated medicine talent. A notable example is Tu Youyou, the 2015 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, who was an outstanding representative of China's first class of Western-trained doctors studying TCM.