Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine

The Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital is a key clinical specialty under development for integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine in Shanghai, as well as a developing discipline of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. The department has 44 approved beds, 1 chief physician, 3 associate chief physicians, and 4 attending physicians, including 4 doctors with doctoral degrees and 3 with master’s degrees.

The department has accumulated extensive experience in the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer through precision treatment, chronic airway diseases (COPD, asthma, and interstitial lung disease), multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and NTM pulmonary disease. It is currently a postgraduate training institution for Tongji University School of Medicine and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, as well as a traditional Chinese medicine training institution for national and Shanghai continuing education programs.

Lung cancer is one of the department’s areas of strength. The department has established an integrated multidisciplinary treatment program based on precision treatment for lung cancer, combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine (including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy, with traditional Chinese medicine integrated throughout the entire course of treatment). Among these, the use of traditional Chinese medicine to strengthen the body’s resistance and combat cancer in the treatment of lung tumors is a distinctive feature of the department: early postoperative intervention with traditional Chinese medicine to promote postoperative recovery; staged treatment to prevent recurrence and metastasis; sequential treatment combining traditional Chinese medicine with chemotherapy and radiotherapy to reduce toxicity and enhance efficacy; and combination of traditional Chinese medicine with targeted therapy to reduce adverse effects. Integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine diagnosis and treatment methods are used throughout the entire course of care to improve survival and quality-of-life indicators in patients with lung cancer.

The department provides a number of traditional Chinese medicine特色诊疗项目: acupoint application and acupoint injection for the treatment of chronic respiratory diseases; external application of traditional Chinese medicine to treat constipation after chemotherapy; Governor Vessel moxibustion combined with traditional Chinese medicine to alleviate the toxic and adverse effects of chemotherapy; auricular point pressure with pellets to improve sleep; acupuncture analgesia and press-needle therapy to relieve cancer pain; acupuncture anesthesia for bronchoscopy and microwave ablation; acupoint injection to prevent bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy, improve cancer-related fatigue, and regulate immune function; and traditional Chinese medicine targeted transdermal drug delivery to improve gastrointestinal adverse effects during chemotherapy.

Physicians in the department have visited and studied at renowned institutions in China and abroad, including Mount Sinai Hospital in the United States and the University of California in the United States. The department has received support for research projects and talent programs, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai’s Three-Year Action Plan, the Shanghai Magnolia Talent Fund, and the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning’s Xinglin New Star program. The department has led 3 national GCP clinical trials and serves as a GCP clinical base for drug development; it has completed 6 GCP clinical studies.

In recent years, the academic leader and key members of the department have led 3 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, more than 10 projects funded by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, 1 clinical innovation project of the Shanghai Hospital Development Center, 1 major special project under Shanghai’s Three-Year Action Plan, and 1 project under the Shanghai Key Clinical Specialty Cultivation Program for Traditional Chinese Medicine; published more than 30 SCI-indexed and core-journal papers; and held numerous academic positions, including executive council members and committee members of national-level academic societies, deputy chairs and committee members of Shanghai-level academic societies, reviewers for the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and reviewers for the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission.