China establishes flagship hospital alliance to boost Chinese, Western medicine integration

BEIJING -- An alliance of 62 China-based flagship hospitals that offer treatments integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine has been established, with the aim of enhancing the country's healthcare services.

The alliance consists of some of China's most prestigious hospitals, including Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing and Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai, according to a conference on integrative medicine held in Beijing on Sunday.

These hospitals are blazing a trail for the coordinated development of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, promoting the integration of traditional Chinese medicine research with technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, according to the conference.

"We must chart a distinctive path for integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine in the new era," said Chen Xiangmei, president of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine.

Experts believe that the approaches of "Western medicine learning from Chinese medicine" and "Chinese medicine learning from Western medicine" represent distinct pathways toward the collaborative development of both fields, with the ultimate goal of deeply integrating traditional Chinese medicine with modern medical practices.

Tong Xiaolin, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that integrative medicine is not simply about combining techniques but aims to catalyze a revolutionary breakthrough in medical paradigms with the help of emerging disciplines such as systems biology and big data science.

Currently, a number of general hospitals in China have established mechanisms for the collaborative development of Chinese and Western medicine, along with multidisciplinary treatment systems, significantly improving clinical outcomes.