Professor Lu Aiping: be a good Chinese medicine doctor, need more Western medicine knowledge

Editor’s note

The 3^rd Longhua International Forum on Digestive Disease was successfully held in Shanghai on December 1^st to 2^nd, 2018, gathering many leading experts and scholars in the area of digestive disease to share experience and techniques in this field (Figure 1). This meeting is of great significance to promoting the deep exchange of diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases with the combined therapy of Chinese and Western medicine. We are honored to interview Prof. Lu Aiping (Figure 2) during the Forum. Watch the video to learn more information (Figure 3).

Figure 1 Prof. Lu Aiping.

Figure 2 Professor Lu Aiping.

Figure 3 Professor Lu Aiping: Be a good Chinese medicine doctor, need more Western medicine knowledge (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/article/view/29211

Expert’s introduction

Professor Lu Aiping (Lyu Aiping) is Dr. Kennedy Wong Endowed Chair Professor & Dean of School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Director of Institute for Advancing Translational Medicine in Bone & Joint Diseases (TMBJ), director of Centre for Cancer and Inflammation Research (CCIR), and director of Institute for Precision Medicine and Innovative Drug (PMID). He is also the Professor in Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and director of Institute of Arthritis Research in Shanghai Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. He is the member of the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Development Committee, member of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong, member of Research Council in Hong Kong Food & Health Bureau, and member of Biology & Medicine Panel in RGC (Hong Kong). Also he was the member of 11th and 12th the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Prof. Lu is the recipient of the Distinguished Young Scholar in National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) in 2007. Besides, he is also as Member of Chinese Pharmacopoeia Commission and Vice-Chairman, Terminology of Traditional Chinese Medicine Sub-Committee, China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies (CNCTST). Also he has been appointed as Head & Spokesperson of the China Delegation, International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee on TCM (ISO/TC249) since 2009. He was as the Director of Institute of Basic Theory Research (1999–2002), Director of Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine (2006–2012), China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences; Director of National Engineering Center of Solid Preparation in Chinese Medicines (2002–2006); Deputy President of China Association of Integrative Medicine (2007–2014); Member of Medical Advisory Committee of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Now he is as the President-elect of Good Practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Association, Associate editors of Frontiers in Pharmacology and Chinese Journal of Integrative Medicine. His research interests mainly focus on the translational research in Chinese medicine, including pharmacological and clinical evaluation on rheumatoid arthritis with traditional Chinese medicine pattern diagnosis and interventions, and development of new drugs based on Chinese medicines. Also he is actively involving the research on the standardization of Chinese medicine and strategic development for Chinese medicine in China. Prof Lu has published more than 30 books and over 330 articles in SCI journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Communication, Science, Lancet, Biomaterials, and Briefings in Bioinformatics. Over the years, he obtained more than 60 patents from his research activities. Prof. Lu has won Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions (Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China, 2003), and Award for Outstanding Contribution to Standardization in China (2014).

Interview

LCM: Could you please share the take-home message of your speech today?

Prof. Lu: The most important topic in my career and in the future is traditional Chinese medicine. In my personal view, you have to distinguish Chinese medicine and Western medicine, but both are needed in clinical applications. I call patient classification/patient intervention “辩证” in Chinese, which means disease diagnosis. You can use suitable methods to help patients.

LCM: Could you share with us the reason why you decided to learn Chinese medicine?

Prof. Lu: In 1978, students had no right of choosing their major. When I was going to university, not much is known about Chinese medicine. Fortunately, I was admitted to the Jiangxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, where is fill of study atmosphere. I build my motto as working hard, learning hard and get more knowledge.

I didn’t think much about whether learning Chinese medicine is good or not? When I was a college student. I always tell my students just to work hard and get more knowledge, and don’t judge your career in the early years.

LCM: Through the adherence and studying of traditional Chinese medicine all these years, what have you learned the most?

Prof. Lu: We need to combine traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine together. If you want to be a very good Chinese medicine doctor, you have to be an expert in Western medicine at the same time. Therefore, spend more time studying Western medicine if you want to be a good Chinese medicine doctor. I have to say Western medicine knowledge is very important for the future development and career.

LCM: As we know, you have been taking a managing role at the School of Chinese Medicine Hong Kong Baptist University for 6 years. Could you briefly let us know what is your scope of work in this role?

Prof. Lu: As the dean of the School of Chinese Medicine Hong Kong Baptist University, I spend half the time to administrate, and the half to research with my team.

LCM: How do you think of international cooperation in the field of traditional Chinese medicine? How can we promote continuous collaboration over the long-term?

Prof. Lu: There is no doubt that China is playing a leading role in Chinese medicine research area. While how to better promote Chinese medicine globally. Though Western medicine is the mainstream, we try to use Chinese medicine data to push Western medicine development. Chinese medicine doctors are actively involved in medical research and practice. I think they should become an organization and more efficient communication is needed.

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the Editorial Office, Longhua Chinese Medicine for the series “Meet the Professor”. The article did not undergo external peer review.

Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/lcm.2018.12.03). The series "Meet the Professor" was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. LF reports that she is a full-time employer of AME Publishing Company (publisher of the journal). The author has no other conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

References

1. Fan L. Professor Lu Aiping: Be a good Chinese Medicine doctor, need more Western Medicine knowledge. Asvide 2018;5:939. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/article/view/29211

(Science Editor: Limor Fan, LCM, lcm@amegroups.com)