Traditional Chinese medicine can play an important role in disease prevention and health improvement by offering individualized intervention and renovation, while the combination of TCM and modern technology such as big data and AI greatly boost service efficiency and quality, local officials told a forum on proactive health at the Shanghai Seventh People’s Hospital over the weekend.
During the forum, the Shanghai University School of Medicine signed an agreement with the hospital to cooperate on proactive health research in geriatrics, which is in line with the current medical service moving from a disease-based model to a health-based one.
The two parties would collaborate on innovative integration in medicine and engineering and seek to translate research achievements into clinical products and service, which could really benefit the patients, said Dr Yu Baoqing, president of the hospital. The Shanghai Seventh People’s Hospital is building itself an intelligent hospital with smart projects such as 24-hour online medical consultations on smartphones, digital consultations, TCM diagnosis and prescription, and AI-based TCM research.
“With the change of the spectrum of diseases and people’s rising awareness, health service focusing on treating disease can’t meet public demand,” said Yu, who is also the director-designate of proactive health branch of the China Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics.
“Proactive health, regarded as the future direction of health management, has been proposed and TCM is an important sector to help achieve and improve proactive health care.”
In China, chronic disease is now responsible for 86.6 percent of deaths in the nation.
The population aged 60 and above has risen from 7.62 percent to 18.7 percent of the total population in the recent 40 years. That percentage is expected to rise to 28 percent in 2040, which creates strong demand and requirements for proactive health, especially among the elderly.
“Disease screening, sports, general medicine, voluntary health management and TCM are effective measures for proactive health,” Yu said. “With the integration of Western medicine and modern technology, TCM can promote healthy lifestyles and offer systematic and personalized health management plans and tools while considering various lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, music, relaxation, and digestion.”
Source: By Cai Wenjun, SHINE
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