Acupuncture and Moxibustion

【Department Founding History】 The Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion was established in 1975. It is one of the hospital’s early core clinical departments. After nearly fifty years of development, it has grown into a national key specialty of traditional Chinese medicine integrating clinical care, scientific research, and education. 【Department Honors】 It is currently a key specialty of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a national superior specialty of traditional Chinese medicine, a high-level clinical key specialty of Guangdong Province, a key discipline of traditional Chinese medicine in Guangdong Province, a key specialty of traditional Chinese medicine in Guangdong Province, a key discipline of Shenzhen, and a clinical key specialty of traditional Chinese medicine in Shenzhen. During the same period, it has served as a branch center of the National Clinical Research Center for Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medicine (cultivation unit), the chairing institution of the Shenzhen Acupuncture and Moxibustion Association, and the supporting department for the Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Modern Applications of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, the Shenzhen Medical Quality Control Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion, the Shenzhen Training Base for Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Methods, and the team of Liu Baoyan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, under Shenzhen’s “Three Famous” Project for Medical and Health Care. 【Department Leadership】 Professors Sun Waizhu, Tao Jiaping, and Yu Haibo successively served as administrative directors of the department, while Professor Yang Zhuoxin served as the academic leader, making outstanding contributions to the department’s development. Since 2025, Professor Gou Yanhua has served as the person in charge of the department. 【Scope of Research】 The department pioneered the “Regulating the Ren and Unblocking the Du Acupuncture Method,” integrating more than 40 distinctive traditional Chinese medical therapies, including filiform needling, fire needling, moxibustion, thread embedding, and Fu’s subcutaneous needling, and has established a diagnostic and treatment system covering nine major fields, including neuropsychiatry, orthopedics, gastroenterology, gynecology, and pediatrics. It has achieved particularly notable results in treating such diseases in which it has particular strengths as stroke rehabilitation, sleep disorders, pediatric cerebral palsy, infertility, and pain disorders. Equipped with advanced equipment, it carries out a combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine diagnostic and treatment model for acupuncture rehabilitation featuring modern traditional Chinese medicine. 【Department Operations】 In recent years, the department has continuously strengthened its capacity for specialty development, expanding from 1 consultation room and 3 medical and nursing staff members into its current cross-campus structure of “three outpatient clinics and three inpatient wards.” In 2025, the total number of beds reached 123. The specialty has 120 personnel, including 2 Guangdong Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctors, 5 Shenzhen Famous and Outstanding Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctors, 6 doctoral supervisors, and 14 master’s supervisors, forming an efficient “medical-nursing-technical” collaborative system. Its service capacity covers the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In 2025, the total number of discharges was 3,220, and the total outpatient volume reached 119,200 visits. With the support of Shenzhen’s “Three Famous” Project for Medical and Health Care, the department brought in the Innovation and Application Team for Clinical Evaluation Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Moxibustion led by Liu Baoyan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, thereby improving the specialty’s clinical and scientific research standards. The department has the Yang Zhuoxin National Studio for the Inheritance of Academic Experience of Famous and Senior Traditional Chinese Medicine Experts and the Yu Haibo Provincial Studio for the Inheritance of Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctors, promoting the inheritance of the academic thought of famous and senior traditional Chinese medicine doctors. As the Department of Acupuncture and Tuina Teaching and Research of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, it has established a full-chain training system of “undergraduate-master’s-doctoral-postdoctoral,” and undertakes standardized training for traditional Chinese medicine physicians and training for specialist nurses. From 2010 to 2025, it trained a cumulative total of 86 graduate students and more than 1,000 trainees and visiting students, and held more than 20 academic activities. The department has achieved fruitful results in scientific research. It has successively undertaken more than 80 national, provincial, and municipal projects, including projects under the National Key R&D Program and National Natural Science Foundation of China projects; published more than 300 academic papers (including more than 40 indexed by SCI); obtained authorization for more than 50 patents; and led or participated in the formulation of multiple industry standards. Silver needles connect ancient and modern times; moxa fire carries on the flame of tradition. Looking to the future, the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion will take the development of a “national superior specialty of traditional Chinese medicine” as a powerful engine, uphold the disciplinary spirit of “maintaining orthodoxy without being bound by antiquity, innovating without departing from the tradition,” and promote the deep integration and coordinated advancement of “medical care, education, research, and industry.” Grounded in the fundamentals of meridians, collaterals, and acupuncture points, it will conduct intensive research on distinctive acupuncture methods and innovate moxibustion techniques, seeking breakthroughs in difficult and refractory pain disorders, neurological rehabilitation, functional diseases, and other fields. It will always put patients at the center and uphold the acupuncture way of “hands there, heart there, qi there,” so that every silver needle is filled with care and every treatment demonstrates efficacy. In this way, it will contribute the wisdom and strength of acupuncture professionals to building a highland of traditional Chinese medicine in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. 【Department Group Photo】