Toward the New Stage of Modern Clinical Science in the 21st Century

In the field of modern medical science, the progress of clinical science seems to be far behind while biotechnology has achieved amazing progress every decade. In addition to medical education problems and lack of medical management, modern clinical science deals with a lot of intrinsic and fundamental problems. Although there are more than 7000 diseases, the number of effective medicines is limited. The newly developed medicines usually prove to be less effective than expected or cause serious side effects. Conscious doctors are really concerned about this fact.

'Get something new from the old' is one of the famous Confucian teachings. I think this should be a guideline for us to enter the new stage of modern clinical science in the 21st century. Here, I would like to propose my idea about the way modern clinical medicine should be headed based on the knowledge of traditional medicine.

a) The reason why Eastern crude drugs have very few side effects is not only that they are made of natural materials, but also because they maintain the balance of the human body between the negative and the positive of the Chinese philosophical theory. The development of a new drug from 5000 kinds of Chinese crude drugs, ignoring the philosophical theory will result in strong side effects. Chinese philosophy should be learned by doctors whom would like to use crude drugs in clinical and research fields.

b) Modern clinical science spares man's natural power of resistance, but his self-defense ability has been diminished. Traditional Chinese medicines can make them strong again. We should establish a protocol to begin with both and finally escape from serious side effects of modern medicine.

c) Each patient has a different physical condition and even thought two people suffer from the same disease, each clinical case is different. I would like to propose the making of a separate manual of treatment for each patient, or tailor-made treatment.

d) The simple function of a drug with an immediate effect may increase the risk of side effects. Disease is not so simple, but TCM has wiser methods of treating a chronic disease with multiple complications.

e) We should put the emphasis of research on the 'Pre-disease condition', the condition before becoming ill, and on improving man's natural healing power by using natural therapy.

f) We should further study the relationship between 'Qi' mentality and disease to be able to cure serious disease. Even if they remain unsolved as of now, Chinese traditional medicine should be appreciated as medical treatment and should be spread.

g) The biomedical journals, i.e., 'Science' or 'Cell' should provide specialized subjects for excellent studies on traditional medical research.