The 1st Int’l Forum on Digital Credit and Technology to enhance International Quality practice of TCM & the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Kampo Pharmaceutical Research Center of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association was held simultaneously in multiple venues via video link on Dec. 28. Representatives from governments, industry, research, academy and international organizations of China’s mainland, Macao, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries and regions, focused on the discussion of guiding the in-depth integration of digital technology with the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry, advancing digitalization and facilitate trading of TCM industry, and promoting the digitalization and internationalization of TCM industry with high quality development.
Professor Wang Xijun, President of the Kampo Pharmaceutical Research Center of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association and Vice President of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, during his opening speech entitled “Digital Technology Promotes the Internationalization of Chinese Medicine”, said that “What impedes internationalization of TCM is the uncertainty of quality.” It’s important to discuss how to ensure the quality control of all intermediary steps in the production of Chinese herbal medicine, and establish international quality control standards to ensure the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine, so as to achieve international development. Simply controlling the quality of Chinese medicine with individual active ingredients is not sufficient to ensure the overall effectiveness and safety of Chinese medicine. It is time to establish the overall attributes of the chemical compositions of Chinese herbal medicine, employ digital fingerprint reconciliation technology, matching with chemical fingerprints with biological data fingerprints, and build a digital credit system for traditional Chinese medicine through big data and AI technology to ensure the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine commodities. In this regard, we hope that through this academic conference, we will promote the research and technological progress of Traditional Chinese Medicine/Kampo Digital Credit and Technology, and make greater contributions to the internationalization of TCM.”
Mao Qun’an, deputy director of the Office of the Healthy China Initiative Promotion Committee and director of the Department of Planning, Development and Informatization of the National Health Commission, delivered a speech on the theme of “Adhering to the equal emphasis on Traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and digitalization helps build a healthy community with shared future for mankind”. He said that TCM is a great innovation of the Chinese nation, a treasure of ancient Chinese science, and the key to opening the treasure house of Chinese civilization, which has made great contributions to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and has had a positive impact on the progress of world civilization. Inheriting, innovating and developing traditional Chinese medicine is the main content of socialist health undertakings with Chinese characteristics in the new era, a major event of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and it is of great significance to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for human health. It is necessary to give full play to the original advantages of traditional Chinese medicine and promote the innovative breakthrough of China’s life sciences. At the same time, promoting the internationalization of the TCM industry is conducive to carrying forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, enhancing national self-confidence and cultural self-confidence, and promoting mutual learning amongst civilizations and people-to-people exchanges.
Lian Xiaomin, chairman of the Zhejiang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, said in his speech entitled “Inheritance and Sharing of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, Digitalization Promotes the Sharing of Chinese Health Care Culture”, saying that from the Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica to the effective anti-epidemic prescriptions, in the long history of Chinese civilization, TCM, as a treasure with a history of thousands of years, has made great contributions to the prosperity of the Chinese nation and has had a positive impact on the progress of world civilization. In the fight against COVID-19, the important role played by TCM has given the public a new understanding of it, and China has also actively shared its anti-pandemic experience of TCM with other countries and contributed the wisdom of oriental civilization. At the same time, the rapid development of new technologies such as big data, cloud computing, IOT, and artificial intelligence has promoted the integration and application of advanced information technology and TCM at the modern scientific level, and the Chinese national essence has ushered in a major opportunity for revitalization and development to the world. Zhejiang is known as a “Land of Culture”, with a rich historical and cultural accumulation, as well as the culture of TCM.
Lian Xiaomin said that the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which has just concluded successfully, comprehensively summarized the party’s century-long glorious course and great achievements, encouraged us to firmly inherit and develop the cultural consciousness of TCM, and continuously enhance the ambition, backbone and confidence of developing TCM from the height of cultural confidence. The medicine of our country has gone through its inheritance of thousands of years, and Chinese medicine has been an important part of cultural identity and national cohesion, so where overseas Chinese go, traditional Chinese medicine often accompanies them. Where there are Chinese, there is the influence of TCM culture. The Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese of Zhejiang Province will make the most of regional overseas Chinese affairs resources and the development of digital economy, seizing the opportunity of TCM to fight the pandemic and relying on the international communication matrix of the Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, to guide the vast number of overseas Chinese to establish cultural confidence in TCM, tell the stories of TCM, and spread the culture of TCM, relying on the “Zhejiang Qiaotong” wisdom federation of overseas Chinese comprehensive platform and other channels to expand digital services such as online TCM and traditional Chinese medicine health; making good use of the Zhejiang overseas Chinese business network all over the world to help the “going out” of TCM and digital technology enterprises, the development of the whole industrial chain, and the integrated development with local traditional medicine. Condensing the hearts of overseas Chinese, gathering the wisdom of overseas Chinese, and converging the strength of overseas Chinese, we will create a “health community with a shared future for humankind” for traditional medicine, and make contributions to the overseas Chinese community by telling the “China’s story” well in the language of traditional Chinese medicine.
Lin Difu, executive chairman of Guangdong’s Association for Promotion of Cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong & Macao, said in his speech, “At present, the use of new technologies for innovation is carried out all over the world, and digitalization, networking and intellectualization have penetrated into all aspects of the economy and society, empowering the innovation of the formats and models of the Chinese medicine industry with digitalization, and driving the new direction of the international development of Chinese medicine with scientific and technological innovation, which highlights the strategic significance of digital credit and digital technology.” As the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area at the forefront of reform and opening up, we should firmly seize this opportunity to try first, and add a strong stroke to the great vision of realizing the health community with shared future for humankind.
Wang Huiyao, counselor of the State Council and president of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), said in his speech, “The integration of Chinese medicine industry into world trade and the global industrial chain and supply chain is an important direction and component of high-quality development. The digitization of the traditional Chinese medicine industry is also an important path to achieve high-quality development.”
Xu Jianguang, president of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine attaches great importance to the modern international digital development of traditional Chinese medicine, according to the needs of the national smart medical development strategy, upholding the overall goal of developing China’s advantages and promoting the cross-integration of disciplines, actively explore intelligent medical treatment, interpersonal interaction, big data technology and theoretical learning as the basis. Taking clinical and practice as the starting point to cultivate application-oriented talents with estimation career and strong engineering practice ability. And China’s digitalization is at the forefront of the world using digital technology, combining the evidence-based medicine of Western medicine and the objective scientific theory of dialectical treatment to promote the high-quality development of Chinese medicine in the global field, which has further pointed out a new direction for the development of TCM.
Li Shien, President of the Drug Monitoring and Administration Division of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Department of the Macao Special Administrative Region Health Bureau and president of the Macau Pharmaceutical Association, said, “I am honored to represent the Macao Health Bureau at the 1st Int’l Forum on Digital Credit and Technology to enhance International Quality practice of TCM. With regard to the establishment of the legal system of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Macao SAR Government has enacted the Law on Pharmaceutical Activities and Registration of Proprietary Chinese Medicine, which will come into effect on 1 January 2022, and through the implementation of this law, it will further strengthen the supervision of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical activities, protect public health and drug safety, enhance the export competitiveness of Macao’s production of proprietary Chinese medicine, and support the development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry.” “I hope with the introduction of digital credit and technology ,it will help the cooperation between Macao , Greater Bay Area and Internationally , discharging its platform function in the interest of Macao.”
Dr. Guo Lanping, director of the Chinese Materia Medica Resource Center of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, said, “The production of Chinese herbal medicine is characterized by the yield of favorable circumstances and the quality of adverse circumstances. The ecology of traditional Chinese medicine does not grab land from farmland, does not make enemies with grass worms, is not afraid of high mountains and dense forests, and is worthy of the green mountains and rivers. Establish a platform for the cultivation of authentic medicinal materials under the support of the integrated high-resolution satellite of “space, sky and earth” accurate to the plot level.”
Dr. Zeng Changqing, Director of the Key Laboratory of Precision Genomic Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “The omics knowledge base, database and analysis means of precision medicine provide a platform for revealing the molecular and omics mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine, and big data plus digitalization and intelligence can promote the quality control management of traditional Chinese medicine.”
Professor Toshiaki MAKINO of the Department of Pharmacy, Nagoya City University Research Institute in Japan, said, “Quality management is carried out according to the content of the index ingredients. The index ingredient is not a pharmacologically active ingredient, but is characterized by its medicinal materials, and the raw medicine that is easy to identify the fake is selected.”
Professor Zhou Hua, Dean of the School of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Macau University of Science and Technology, said, “The ISO standard for Chinese medicine supports the establishment of a traceability certification system for the quality of international trade in Chinese medicine, and guarantees the quality of Chinese medicine with digital credit.”
Professor Wang Yi, deputy director of the Department of Chinese Medicine Science and Engineering and deputy director of the Institute of Pharmaceutical Informatics, School of Pharmacy, Zhejiang University, said, “Artificial intelligence is increasingly used in biomedical research, and artificial intelligence technology is used to build a big data platform to achieve data aggregation, integration and full mining.”
Dr. Timothy LOW, Head of the Temasek-Pavillion Medical Fund of Singapore, said, ” TCM theory attaches importance to holistic diagnosis and treatment, emphasizes individualization, and in accordance with Evidence-based Science, provides digital ratings and digital credits for Chinese herbal medicine through digitalization, and promotes the safe and high-quality use of TCM internationalization.”
Dr. CHIANG Chun Yuan, Vice President and Secretary-General of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association, said, “The purpose of the establishment of the Chinese Medicine Digital Credit Technology Expert Group and the Kampo-Chinese Medicine Experience Center is to promote the international development of digital credit to empower the high-quality development of Chinese medicine, the second is to promote the safe and high-quality development of traditional medicine and food, and the third is to select the site to establish a ‘Kampo-Chinese Medicine Experience Center’ exchange and cooperation platform to dock with international and domestic experts.”
Zhang Yansheng, executive vice president and secretary general of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association, said that the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association was established in 1988 and is under the supervision of the National Health Commission, which is a non-governmental academic institution dedicated to the exchange and cooperation of medicine and health and traditional medicine between China and Japan. In 2020, the Kampo Pharmaceutical Research Association of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association was established. In line with the national action to promote the common goal of human health and conform to the full affirmation of Chinese traditional Chinese medicine by the international community during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kampo Pharmaceutical Research Association of the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association organized this online forum, aiming to explore with numerous experts and guests how to use new technologies such as digitalization, digital credit, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence to promote the common goal of human health and seek innovative directions and methods for the high-quality and sustainable development of human health together.
In the future, the China-Japan Medical Science and Technology Exchange Association and its branches will strive to complete the business direction approved by the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, including multilateral exchanges and collaborations of higher quality technology, academic research, talents and management between China and Japan; promote the exchange of health professionals with Japan and the development of traditional Chinese medicine/Kampo experience centers to serve well as a “international medical exchange window” and to achieve a higher level of complementary advantages, fostering the implementation of the strategy of Healthy China.
The forum was actively attended by the Office of the Healthy China Initiative Promotion Committee, National Health Commission, Beijing Institute of Genomics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Center for China and Globalization (CCG), Zhejiang Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang A&F University, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Medical Association and Shanghai Medical Doctor Association, Institute for AI Industry Research of Tsinghua University, Macau University of Science and Technology, School of Pharmacy of Nagoya City University of Japan, Raman University of Malaysia, Temasek-Pavillion Medical Fund of Singapore and World Alliance of Traditional Medicine and Food Omics, and supported by the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao S.A.R and the Association for Promotion of Cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong & Macao. The hosts look forward to advancing the digitalization and internationalization of TCM through this forum.