As a unique health resource in China, Chinese medicine is closely related to people’s life, health and happy life. With the rapid development of medical science and technology, how to seize the opportunity and inherit, develop and make good use of this precious wealth of traditional Chinese medicine has become an unavoidable examination question of the times. To create a new situation for comprehensively promoting the cause of traditional Chinese medicine and promote the innovative development and clinical application of collateral disease theory of traditional Chinese medicine.
A few days ago, at the "National Seminar on Teaching and Textbook Adaptation of Traditional Chinese Medicine Collateral Diseases" held by the Collateral Diseases Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, experts and scholars from all over the country gathered together to discuss and exchange hot topics such as the innovative development and application of the theory of collateral diseases, the construction of the national curriculum system of collateral diseases, and the sharing of teaching experience. During the meeting, the reporter of Physician’s Daily interviewed Professor Wang Xinhua, former president of Guangzhou Medical University, and Professor Wang Yongjun, vice president of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and vice president of Shanghai Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and had an in-depth exchange and discussion on hot topics such as how to effectively innovate traditional Chinese medicine and the role of discipline construction of traditional Chinese medicine in promoting the academic development of traditional Chinese medicine.
Adhere to the "four aspects" of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine and show the innovative charm of traditional Chinese medicine to the world
In recent years, China’s traditional Chinese medicine service system has become increasingly perfect, and the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine have entered the fast lane. But at the same time, there are still many problems to be solved in the key links of the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, such as personnel training, discipline construction and innovation development.
In Professor Wang Xinhua’s view, it is an inevitable choice for the sustainable development of traditional Chinese medicine to be upright and innovative. He said that on the basis of inheriting, respecting and following the development law of traditional Chinese medicine, the innovative development of traditional Chinese medicine should combine modern medicine and scientific and technological means to clarify the modern biological connotation and essence of traditional Chinese medicine theory, and at the same time verify the mechanism and clinical efficacy of innovative traditional Chinese medicine through the clinical research of modern evidence-based medicine, and develop traditional Chinese medicine treatment methods. "Inheritance is the foundation, innovation is the driving force, and both are indispensable."
Professor Wang Yongjun was interviewed.
Professor Wang Yongjun said that the foothold of TCM inheritance and innovation should be closely combined with the "four orientations", that is, facing the world’s scientific and technological frontier and answering key scientific questions of TCM; Facing the main battlefield of the economy, breaking through the key technical bottlenecks that restrict the high-quality development of the industry; Facing the major needs of the country, solving the development problems of traditional Chinese medicine itself; Facing people’s life and health, give full play to the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine.
"While the curative effect is improved, it is necessary to explore the mechanism. In this way, we can go from knowing what it is to knowing why it is. " Professor Wang Yongjun said that the innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine should keep pace with the times, and multi-disciplinary cross-cooperation research should be carried out, on this basis, there can be major innovations and breakthroughs in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine.
Professor Wang Yongjun said that over the past 40 years, Professor Wu Yiling’s team has combined the holistic thinking of traditional Chinese medicine with modern technology to systematically build a theoretical research system for collateral diseases, which has become a new era model for the inheritance and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine. Collateral disease theory not only shows the "charm" of TCM innovation to the world, but also plays a leading role in TCM innovation in international academic circles. It not only promoted the research and development of innovative drugs, but also improved the level of prevention and treatment of major clinical diseases. At the same time, it also improved patients’ sense of acquisition, happiness and security for the treatment effect of diseases, and promoted the high-quality development of Chinese medicine and industry. "This is the demand of the people and a major demand of the country."
The theoretical system of collateral diseases has carried out theoretical innovation and research around the needs of major diseases, and developed a series of innovative Chinese medicines, covering major diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory infectious diseases, tumors, prostate diseases and mental diseases. Professor Wang Yongjun pointed out that the innovative development of collateral disease theory not only promoted the high-quality development of Chinese medicine and industry in China, but also made great contributions to the improvement of human health and well-being, and laid a solid foundation for the self-reliance and self-confidence of Chinese medicine culture.
Professor Wang Xinhua pointed out that as a representative Chinese patent medicine developed under the guidance of collateral disease theory of traditional Chinese medicine for treating viral respiratory infectious diseases, Lianhua Qingwen played an important role during the outbreak of SARS and influenza A (H1N1). "In order to confirm its role in the treatment of infection in novel coronavirus, the clinical evidence-based medical research of Lianhua Qingwen carried out by the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases of Guangzhou Medical University confirmed the clinical effectiveness, safety and economy of Lianhua Qingwen for mild and moderate adult patients in COVID-19."
"Collateral disease theory is a model of the development and innovation of Chinese medicine theory. It is not limited to a certain medicine, a certain prescription or a certain mechanism of action. It is the innovation of the whole theoretical system." Professor Wang Xinhua said that the collateral disease theory was verified in clinical practice on the basis of inheritance, and innovative Chinese medicines were developed through the combination of clinical practice and theory, which were repeatedly verified in clinical diagnosis and treatment. He believes that in the whole development model of Chinese medicine, collateral disease theory has truly realized the innovative development of Chinese medicine theory, and also provided a direction for the future development of Chinese medicine.
Doing well the "three elements" of discipline construction and promoting the high-quality development of Chinese medicine industry
Professor Wang Xinhua was interviewed.
Discipline construction is the most important starting point to promote the academic development of traditional Chinese medicine, and talent training, scientific research and social service are indispensable. Professor Wang Xinhua elaborated on this in detail.
Talent cultivation is the foundation of the sustainable development of disciplines.
Netology, an innovative teaching material for higher education in Chinese medicine industry, was published in 2005 and reprinted in 2017. It has been started in more than 40 universities in China, including 33 undergraduate courses and 10 graduate schools. Professor Wang Xinhua said that it is a far-sighted strategy to offer collateral disease theory course through the education platform, because if there is a lack of successors after the construction of a theoretical system, it will be difficult for the subject to develop continuously without training a group of talents who study and apply the theory to guide the treatment of diseases in clinic.
Innovation consciousness is the premise and foundation of innovation activities. Professor Wang Xinhua pointed out that in personnel training, we should emphasize the promotion of students’ innovative thinking, so that students can understand that the theory of traditional Chinese medicine is constantly developing and will continue to innovate and break through in the future.
"Of course, combined with different professional backgrounds, teaching should be focused. Students majoring in Chinese medicine should focus on cultivating innovative thinking in the development of Chinese medicine; Students majoring in western medicine should also study the courses of Chinese medicine and integrate the theory of collateral diseases into the courses. " Professor Wang Xinhua said that the modern medical methods and experimental techniques in the College of Western Medicine are mature. If western medicine students can deeply understand the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and carry out research by combining reductionism, the combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine and the combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine will surely make great achievements.
Scientific research should follow the combination of holism and reductionism.
Holism is an important prerequisite for the innovation of traditional Chinese medicine. However, it will be difficult to promote the development of traditional Chinese medicine and improve the quality of clinical service only by holism without reductionism and without modern scientific and technological means to clarify its essence.
The specific method and technical route of the combination of holism and reductionism need multidisciplinary cross-cooperation. Professor Wang Xinhua pointed out that traditional Chinese medicine itself is a multidisciplinary medicine, which includes not only the ancient people’s understanding of natural science, but also humanities and philosophy. Therefore, the application of modern medical science and technology, artificial intelligence, big data and other means to explore the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, interdisciplinary, integration, will provide important support for breaking through the bottleneck of discipline development.
Improving clinical efficacy in an all-round way is the goal of consolidating social services.
The purpose of personnel training, scientific research and theoretical innovation is for the health of the broad masses of the people. Professor Wang Xinhua emphasized that the concept of "people-oriented" should be used to improve the level of diagnosis and treatment and service quality, improve the curative effect of developing new products and improve the treatment status of clinical diseases.
Social service reminds us that we should be good at applying the evidence of evidence-based medicine research to clinic, and improve the treatment plan through the data of clinical feedback, so as to promote the cracking of research problems and the breakthrough of bottlenecks. Professor Wang Xinhua pointed out that discipline construction is an important starting point to promote the development of traditional Chinese medicine, and talent training, scientific research and social service are essential to discipline construction.
As a unique part of the theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine, TCM collateral science has achieved fruitful results in theoretical innovation and drug research and development through years of sustained and in-depth development, strengthened the transformation strength of scientific and technological achievements of traditional Chinese medicine, and promoted exchanges and intercommunication between Chinese medicine industries at home and abroad.
The discipline construction of traditional Chinese medicine can not be separated from keywords such as teaching, clinic, scientific research, transformation and application. Professor Wang Yongjun said that in high-level teaching and research, collateral disease theory took the lead in setting a good example and took a unique and influential path, which is worthy of more people’s participation and in-depth study.