Gaining recognition

陈小将

Gaining recognition

Damien Mathews, CEO of the Sydney Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which trains TCM practitioners through accredited courses, reiterated the need to "work closely with the regulators and to make sure that all of the knowledge, the expertise and the millennia of learning that went into Chinese medicine are able to flourish in Australia".

Expanding TCM recognition in public health and insurance will also address one of the major challenges in its development, he told China Daily.

"Public health insurance currently favors other allied health professions, such as physiotherapy or psychology … But TCM doesn't receive this kind of recognition, and that is a major disadvantage for TCM," Mathews said.

Noting that patients have financial concerns that mean healthcare has to be affordable, he said that getting that level of government recognition is an important long-term goal for the whole sector, so TCM can be found "not just in private clinics but also throughout Australia's public hospitals".

Another challenge is the "different professional associations and that can create a little bit of fragmentation", Mathews said, with different groups representing acupuncturists of Chinese and European backgrounds, for example.

"There's no easy solution, it's just a product of history, of the development of Chinese medicine in Australia. Now that we're here, we do need to find a way to work together so that the professional associations can really be as united as possible," he said.

Nevertheless, the benefits of TCM remain evident, Mathews said, especially when he sees patients who have tried various other healthcare options discover that Chinese medicine is the solution they were seeking, and continue returning for treatment.

"We see that kind of story again and again. I think that's Chinese medicine's real strength. The experience, clinical outcomes," he said.

Sass, the TCM practitioner in Melbourne, said that over time, his patients would go to him for pain or movement limitation injuries and "find that there are solutions for stress, gastrointestinal, chronic fatigue, bronchitis, kidney stones, even cold and flu symptoms within a Chinese medicine framework".

TCM has been enriching not only from a cure and treatment perspective, but also from a quality of life standpoint, he said, adding that there is "a very healthy respect for our contemporaries in Western medicine".

Sass said his tertiary studies in TCM in Australia encompassed subjects that were wide-ranging from both a Western and Chinese medicine perspective, with "each contributing invaluable knowledge, which helped to further refine and broaden my perspective and skill set as a clinician".

"Acupuncture study was completely new to me … Being able to differentiate and effectively execute a prescription of treatment is leagues above simple knowledge," he said.

Countless hours of practice and refining theory understanding, exposure to patients in a student clinic and the invaluable sharing of teachers, senior practitioners and fellow students were invaluable, Sass said, adding that the "ultimate highlight" of his studies was an internship at a hospital in Nanjing.

He said the experience touched his heart and soul, and he longs to return and reconnect. "I will never stop sharing the story of this adventure with my patients or anyone who will listen."

Alan Bensoussan, emeritus professor of integrative medicine at the NICM (National Institute of Complementary Medicine) Health Research Institute of Western Sydney University, said more can be done for grants and support for TCM research in the West.

Collaborative research and exchange of medical specialists between Australia and China are needed, with targeted outcomes that boost the recognition of TCM in the West, along with its approaches being adopted by medical specialists in key clinical areas, he said.

"We want to reach out to industry, we want to reach out to professional associations, and help make Chinese medicine much more recognized and established globally. It is … a treasure house of knowledge, but we need to make sure that it's visible," Bensoussan said.