Professor Zhou Hua, Shuguang Hospital Shanghai: I think it is important to develop international collaborations with foreign institutions

The top, or also the top workplace, medical and research center of TCM, is the complex of hospitals and the TCM University in Shanghai. Other provinces and the capital, Beijing, also have important centers, but in Shanghai, international scientific projects, research and local treatment operate and are being prepared or coordinated on a huge scale and at the highest level.

The hospital management also visited the Czech Republic several times. The project at the Hradec Králové University Hospital was also under the responsibility of Shuguang Hospital Shanghai. The director of Shuguang Hospital (Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and a representative of the highest "Shanghai school" of TCM is a respected TCM expert and physician, Professor Zhou Hua.

 

What about your experiences in collaboration with universities and hospitals, focused on TCM, all over the world?

Shuguang hospital is one of the oldest TCM hospitals in Shanghai with the history of 113 years. By adhering to the principle of emphasizing both western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, promoting the inheritance and innovation of TCM, Shuguang has achieved lots of progress on international collaboration in past decades. The hospital undertakes the secretariat for ISO/TC249. As the main Chinese scheme makter, it participates in the WHO classification work of traditional medicine project (ICTM). Shuguang has established the first government supported overseas TCM Center in Czech Republic since 2015. The hospital has signed partnership with l’Assistance publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, HanseMerkur Center for Traditional Chinses Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Acufit in Netherland, Malaysia Management and Science University. The hospital has also implemented joint scientific research with Universities of Yale, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, South Florida and Tufts Medical Center in the USA, and Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania in Australia. Exchange training and visiting have been active with those institutions and lots of joint papers were published.

I think it is important to develop international collaborations with foreign institutions, not only for our hospital, but also for the whole world. Diseases of human beings are changing; both TCM and western medicine should be hand-in hand and work together to fight for the well-being of mankind. Besides, the common interests of parties are just the first step for international collaborations. And what’s more, strong political commitment can push the way further.

 

Public in Czech Republic was interesting in the project of TCM Clinic at University Hospital Hradec Kralove, but it was finished a short time before. Do you want to comment this affair?

I am very satisfied with the results of the first-stage cooperation and hope that further cooperation will be carried out with the supports of both Czech and Chinese governments.

 

Is it possible to renumerate the main advantage of TCM, due to them you would recommend it?

Traditional Chinese Medicine is a type of holistic, natural health care system that dates back at least 2,000 years to the year 200 B.C. TCM believes the unity of nature and human. The functional state of the human body is the comprehensive reaction to the internal and external environment. TCM is “holistic” and “natural” because it stimulates the body’s own healing mechanisms and takes into account all aspects of a patient’s life, rather than just several obvious signs or symptoms. TCM practitioners view the body as a complex network of interconnected parts rather than separate systems or organs. This is a major feature and advantage of traditional Chinese medicine, in line with the trend of modern clinical medicine development.

Organs that are especially focused on during TCM treatments include the kidneys, heart, spleen, liver, lung, gallbladder, small intestine and large intestine. Depending on the specific type, the benefits of TCM therapies range considerably. Some of the health problems most commonly treated with Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies include but not limit in:

Chronic pain

Arthritis

Infertility

Liver disease

Headaches

Indigestion

High blood pressure

PMS or menopause symptoms

Cancer recovery or chemotherapy

The rich therapeutic methods and flexible methods of traditional Chinese medicine conform to the characteristics of human physiological and pathological diversity. Traditional Chinese medicine prescription is one of the most commonly used drug treatments in traditional Chinese medicine. The various effective components of prescriptions are multi-factors for human body. Non-drug therapy include: Acupuncture, Tuina, Cupping, Muxibustion, Daoyin Exercise, etc. Among them, acupuncture therapy is a great invention and pioneering work in ancient China. Through the stimulation of acupuncture points on the human body surface, the overall regulation is effective, and the curative effect is wide. Chinese medicine has played a pivotal role in the 5,000-year history of the Chinese nation.

Traditional Chinese medicine fully embodies the organic combination of natural science and social science and shows the new trend of modern scientific integration. The theoretical system and clinical thinking mode of traditional Chinese medicine have rich Chinese cultural heritage, which reflects the high integration and unification of natural science, social science and humanities. Chinese medicine, which takes the functional state as the entry point and analyzes and grasps the law of change in the macroscopically with the help of philosophy, social sciences, and humanities, is a leap in human history and provides a unique way for human beings to know themselves. The mode of thinking is in line with the new trend of modern scientific integration.

 

Is TCM a part of public health insurance in China?

Yes. According to the provisions of China's traditional Chinese Medicine law, qualified TCM medical institutions are included in the scope of the basic medical insurance medical institutions, and the qualified TCM treatment items, Chinese herbal tablets, proprietary Chinese medicines and Chinese medicine preparations of medical institutions are included in the payment scope of the basic Medical Insurance Fund.

 

Do you have any new plans in Czech Republic?

We hope to expand our partnership with Czech public hospitals and private institutions to further deepen our cooperation on the basis of the actual needs of the Czech Republic and to expand the application of TCM technology to the benefit of more Czech people.

 

By Jan HOVORKA, TCM REVUE/tcmrevue.cz, 2019