Asia Healthcare Blog
Exploring the intersection of investment and development, in Asia



China, HK, Macau

July 25, 2009

Links for the week of July 20th 2009

I fell on the comments of Azmeen from HTNet Solutions: Effective H1N1 Cure Found: Mystery Chinese Herbs

He brings into question the legitimacy of this piece: Chinese Herbs Prove Effective In The Cure Of Inlfuenza A (H1N1)

The article claims that Ditan Hospital in Beijing has found a herbal sure for H1N1, “However, Wang did not reveal the herbs used to cure the patients.” Azmeen calls this vaporware, rightly so in my opinion.

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Danwei has two translations of letters to the Beijing News about patients thoughts on their experience at local hospitals. First letter complaining about the lack of diligence from the various doctors: It only matters what the machine thinks: getting diagnosed in a Chinese hospital

from 1st letter:

From a young age I have been in and out of hospitals, and know that doctors need to make “four checks:” in TCM the four aspects for a diagnosis are looking, asking, listening and palpation (望, 闻, 问, 切) and in western medicine they are looking, feeling, knocking and listening (望, 扪, 叩, 听).

The methods for examination have become more advanced, but this doesn’t mean that the basic methods of examination should be eliminated. Hospital staff who overly rely upon high-tech equipment will only abuse clinical examinations, causing a huge wastage of medical resources and economical burdens for the ill. This also goes against the professional morality of medicine and its ethical standards.

From the 2nd letter:

Lately, my wife went to the hospital after getting an infection in her urinary system. The doctor on duty was a young doctor, and asked: “Symptoms?” My wife answered: “It hurts when I urinate.” Immediately following was a tearing sound and: “Go get a standard urine test!” I said, on the side: “She got this once before, last year, and urinated blood!” The doctor looked at me and then there was another tearing sound: “And get a B-mode ultrasound!” I asked again: “Do you think it’s only an infection or is it lithangiuria?“ This time the doctor didn’t even raise his head: “What use is it what I think? It only matters what the machine thinks!”

[...]

As you can see, doctors from the past and doctors now really aren’t the same.

[...]

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For fans of TED, there is TEDMED coming soon! check it out here: http://www.tedmed.com/



About the Author

James Flanagan
After a few years of living in Singapore, James headed to Montreal to study at McGill where he received a B.Com in 2006. He jumped on the first plane back to Asia and landed in Beijing. After trying his hands at a couple of different projects, he focused on developing a consulting firm focusing on Asian IT/Biotech firms. Currently, James Flanagan is on the board of The Beijing Rotaract Club, and spends most of his time working on TedxBeijing 2012 with his laptop, in Beijing, PRC.




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