Traditional Chinese Medicine

1. Department Overview and Official Qualifications The Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated with Xiamen University was established in 1988. After more than 30 years of intensive development and accumulated experience, it has grown into a comprehensive department specializing in traditional Chinese medicine that integrates medical care, education, research, rehabilitation, and prevention, with distinctive features and strong capabilities. It is a core priority department in the hospital’s coordinated development of Chinese and Western medicine. Based on the essence of traditional Chinese medicine and integrating modern medical technologies, the department focuses on standardized integrated Chinese-Western diagnosis and treatment for common diseases, frequently occurring diseases, and difficult and complex conditions. It has established a specialty benchmark particularly in the coordinated Chinese-Western diagnosis and treatment of geriatric diseases, with prominent regional influence. The department’s core official qualifications and key development credentials are as follows:

- National Demonstration Unit for Traditional Chinese Medicine Work in General Hospitals (National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine; approved in 2012) - Fujian Provincial Key Traditional Chinese Medicine Specialty (integrated Chinese-Western geriatric medicine; approved in 2024 following acceptance by the Fujian Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine) - Xiamen Municipal Construction Project for a Flagship Department of Chinese-Western Medicine Collaboration (approved for project establishment by the Xiamen Municipal Health Commission in 2024)

2. Diagnostic and Treatment Scale and Service Capacity The department has a well-developed organizational structure and a complete diagnostic and treatment system consisting of two major components: a specialized traditional Chinese medicine outpatient service and a standardized traditional Chinese medicine inpatient department. It has 42 authorized operating beds and a comprehensive service system covering traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation physiotherapy, and high-quality nursing care. The department has always upheld the core service principle that “everything is centered on the patient,” adhered to the service philosophy of precise diagnosis and treatment, safe medical practice, and humanistic care, and devoted itself to traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis and treatment as well as coordinated integrated Chinese-Western therapy. It has developed an integrated diagnostic and treatment model of “traditional Chinese medicine pattern differentiation, oral Chinese medicines, distinctive external therapies, rehabilitation and conditioning, and chronic disease management,” comprehensively meeting the diagnostic and treatment needs of common diseases, frequently occurring diseases, chronic diseases, and difficult and complex conditions. Its clinical outcomes are stable, and it enjoys an excellent reputation among patients.

3. Core Diagnostic and Treatment Technology System and Specialty Features Building on the advantages of its provincial key specialty in integrated Chinese-Western geriatric medicine, the department places coordinated Chinese-Western diagnosis and treatment at the center of its specialty profile. It combines the inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine with innovation in modern medicine, has established a multidimensional and standardized diagnostic and treatment technology system, and focuses on developing three distinctive diagnostic and treatment directions.

(1) Precise Integrated Chinese-Western Diagnosis and Treatment of Geriatric Diseases As the core direction of the department’s provincial key specialty, this area focuses on the coordinated management of multisystem chronic diseases, multimorbidity, and frailty in older adults. For geriatric cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, chronic spleen-and-stomach diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, postoperative conditioning for older adults after tumor surgery, geriatric insomnia, constitutional weakness and frailty, and other conditions, the department adopts a coordinated approach of “standardized Western medical disease control plus TCM pattern differentiation to consolidate the foundation.” This approach effectively improves visceral organ function in older patients, enhances quality of life, reduces recurrence of chronic diseases, and lowers adverse drug reactions, thereby establishing a mature full-cycle conditioning system for geriatric diseases.

(2) Comprehensive Treatment with Traditional Chinese Medicine Specialty Therapies The department provides a full range of classical traditional Chinese medicine therapies. Based on holistic pattern-differentiation thinking in traditional Chinese medicine, it individually combines oral Chinese herbal medicines and herbal paste therapy, while systematically providing distinctive external therapies including acupuncture, moxibustion, Tuina and spinal manipulation, auricular acupoint therapy, traditional Chinese medicine fumigation, acupoint thread embedding, acupoint injection, and external applications and physiotherapy. These therapies are suitable for the conservative treatment and rehabilitation conditioning of neck, shoulder, low-back, and leg pain; rheumatic painful-obstruction syndromes; spleen-and-stomach dysfunction; menstrual irregularities; insomnia and obesity; chronic skin diseases; subhealth conditions; and other disorders.

(3) Coordinated Chinese-Western Efforts to Address Difficult and Complex Conditions For clinically refractory and complex diseases, the department overcomes the limitations of a single diagnostic and treatment approach by leveraging the strengths of integrated Chinese-Western medicine and conducting coordinated diagnosis and treatment jointly with relevant clinical departments. For difficult problems such as chronic recurrent diseases, mixed multisystem conditions, postoperative rehabilitation difficulties, and conditioning of physical weakness after tumor radiotherapy or chemotherapy, it develops individualized, stepwise diagnostic and treatment plans. This achieves the therapeutic effects of eliminating pathogenic factors, supporting healthy qi, and addressing both manifestations and root causes, while filling the diagnostic and treatment gaps of single-modality therapy.

4. Discipline Leaders and Talent Team The department has devoted sustained effort to building a professional talent structure and has developed a high-quality team of traditional Chinese medicine professionals with a well-balanced professional-title structure, solid expertise, extensive clinical experience, and coordinated development in clinical care, education, and research. Its overall strength ranks among the leading traditional Chinese medicine departments in general hospitals in Xiamen. The department currently has more than 20 medical staff members, and its core team is fully staffed:

Senior professional-title team: 4 chief physicians and 4 deputy chief physicians. The backbone physicians all have many years of experience in traditional Chinese medicine clinical practice and integrated Chinese-Western diagnosis and treatment. Their specialty areas cover geriatrics, spleen-and-stomach diseases, rheumatic pain, oncology conditioning, gynecology, dermatology, and several other fields.

Academic influence in the profession: Members of the department have collectively held more than 10 person-times of committee memberships and other appointments in national and provincial professional societies for traditional Chinese medicine. They participate deeply in the development of industry standards, academic exchange, and technology promotion, giving the department a prominent regional academic voice. The team attaches equal importance to clinical care and humanistic service and is supported by a specialized traditional Chinese medicine nursing team. It provides high-quality nursing services with distinctive traditional Chinese medicine features, integrates humanistic care throughout the entire diagnostic and treatment process, and substantially improves patients’ healthcare experience and rehabilitation outcomes.

5. Education, Research, and Academic Outreach The department is committed to the coordinated, integrated development of clinical care, education, and research. While deepening its clinical diagnostic and treatment work, it continuously advances innovation in traditional Chinese medicine education and research, and its overall academic strength is steadily improving.

(1) Education As a designated teaching base of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the School of Medicine of Xiamen University, the department has long undertaken clinical internships, clinical supervision, and training for traditional Chinese medicine students and overseas international students. It conducts standardized clinical teaching, case discussions, and practical skills training, continuously supplying high-quality traditional Chinese medicine professionals to China and overseas.

(2) Research The department has a strong research foundation and focuses on integrated Chinese-Western geriatric medicine, traditional Chinese medicine conditioning of chronic diseases, mechanisms underlying the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine, and other research directions, producing abundant research results. Over time, it has led numerous national- and provincial-level key research projects, including projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and key science and technology projects of Fujian Province. Multiple high-level academic papers by the department’s team have been successfully published in Chinese core journals and indexed in authoritative databases such as SCI and Medline. Its research innovation capacity and academic research level consistently rank among the leading comparable departments in the region.

6. Department Philosophy and Development Vision The department has always upheld the development philosophy of “inheriting the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, integrating the strengths of Western medicine, providing precise diagnosis and treatment for the people, and delivering high-quality, heartwarming services.” It adheres to medical quality as its core standard and strictly maintains the bottom line of medical safety. Relying on the advantages of three core platforms—the National Demonstration Unit for Traditional Chinese Medicine Work in General Hospitals, the Provincial Key Traditional Chinese Medicine Specialty, and the Municipal Flagship Department for Chinese-Western Medicine Collaboration—the department continues to deepen its distinctive integrated Chinese-Western diagnosis and treatment, precise management of geriatric diseases, and traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation and conditioning. It continues to improve its full-cycle traditional Chinese medicine service system and is committed to building a distinctive specialty in integrated Chinese-Western medicine that leads the province and is renowned in the region, providing the general public with professional, high-quality, efficient, and humanistic traditional Chinese medicine health services throughout the entire life cycle.