Beijing, June 5 (Xu Weina) - The second Global Health Forum of Boao Forum for Asia will be held in Qingdao, China in October 2020.

Recently, Zhai Lixiang, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said in an interview with People's Daily that he was very grateful for the invitation by the organizing committee of Global Health Forum of Boao Forum for Asia to participate in this online conference as a representative of Chinese medicine system. He said that China has experienced two epidemics, "SARS" and "Covid-19", both of which showed the positive role of Chinese medicine in public health emergencies, especially in terms of participation, improving cure rate and reducing death rate.

"In the face of this epidemic, we must think more deeply about the lack of TCM education and talent training in infectious exopathic diseases." Zhai Lixiang said that the Chinese medicine system should fully explore the experience of preventing and controlling epidemics in ancient literature, and effectively improve the emergency treatment capability and scientific research capability for sudden major infectious diseases.

How can we promote the heritage, innovation and development of Chinese medicine? Zhai Lixiang pointed out that we can do it in four aspects. The first is to cultivate high-quality Chinese medical talents, so as to raise the level of Chinese medicine. The second is to explore the essence of Chinese medicine consolidate the foundation of Chinese medicine focusing on the key clinical issues. The third is to treat the acute, critical, difficult and complex diseases, so as to develop Chinese medicine. The fourth is to provide the people with a full range of life-cycle of Chinese medicine health services as the core, so as to highlight the characteristics of Chinese medicine.

Zhai Lixiang said that we need to promote not only heritage but also innovation, to build a high-level platform for the development of Chinese medicine. The first is to integrate the advantages of Chinese and Western medicine in disease diagnosis and treatment, and explore the construction of perfect medicine for human beings. The second is to develop Chinese medicine with new technologies, and adhere to the combination of Chinese and Western medicine. The third is to build a mechanism for training compound talents and consolidate the foundation of TCM innovation and development. The fourth is to promote the integration of clinical research in TCM and apply high-level research achievements to industry.

Zhai Lixiang said that the Global Health Forum of Boao Forum for Asia is a comprehensive international exchange platform combining politics, business, industry, academia and research, which helps to build a global community of human health. The online expert meeting is also a timely initiative to actively participate in and focus on public health issues. This year, the second Global Health Forum set up a traditional medicine sub-forum, focusing on the development of Chinese medicine and the promotion of Chinese medicine and other traditional medicines. Meanwhile, the conference will also launch a number of events such as the Hospital Directors’ Salon, and we are looking forward to participating in the second conference, to promote the heritage, innovation and development of TCM, and let the world know more about traditional Chinese medicine.

Talents are fundamental to the development of TCM.

How to build a talent training system? Zhai Lixiang gave an example and said that our former director Lv Yubo, who is a very well-known hospital management expert, has visited many famous TCM practitioners across the country and asked the same question every time: "How did you become successful?" All of them gave the same answer: "Read the classics, follow famous teachers, and do clinical work." The training of TCM talents should follow the law of cultivating TCM talents.

In Zhai Lixiang's opinion, the only standard to test the effectiveness of TCM inheritance and innovation is the clinical efficacy of TCM, and high-level TCM talents are the key to improve clinical efficacy.

According to Zhai, since 2000, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has launched the "clinical teaching" project, inviting national Chinese medicine experts or famous doctors to teach apprentices. It has created the mode of "collective teaching" and "senior fellow apprentices help juniors", and trained a number of young and middle-aged talents.