After dinner, Tang Yixin turned on his mobile phone, browsed for a while, and began to reply one by one. The 70-year-old old Chinese medicine doctor is the chief physician of the Spleen and Stomach Disease Department of Sichuan Leshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. After retiring, he accepted re-employment and was busier than ever. During the day, he visits the hospital, and at night, he turns his home into a clinic and uses his mobile phone to communicate with patients on the other end of the network.
In the impression of many people, “old Chinese medicine” seems to be easily equated with adjectives such as old-fashioned and conservative, but Tang Yixin is quite different.
“I’m 70 years old this year, but I don’t feel any difficulty in doing online consultations and prescriptions. Thirty years ago, I was the first batch of people to use computers in Leshan.” Tang Yixin laughed.
Many people will be amazed at Dr. Tang’s proficiency in using mobile phones and computers. Many doctors of the same age need the help of assistants to complete operations such as computer prescriptions.
“What’s so strange about knowing a little computer? It’s just a tool.” In fact, Tang Yixin is an old netizen. More than 30 years ago, when he went abroad to communicate, he saw a doctor sitting in front of a computer in a hospital, prescribing a prescription for a patient. “When the computer is knocked on, the medicine in the pharmacy will come out.” Conditional, must be equipped with a computer. At the same time, Tang Yixin started teaching himself to use computers, earlier than many of his younger colleagues.
(Tang Yixin can use all kinds of electronic products proficiently)
Tang Yixin believes that traditional Chinese medicine is used in the past and has a profound concept, and more foreign exchanges are needed. He is proficient in Russian, Japanese and English, and often goes abroad to teach foreign scholars fluently in the language of his host country.
Four years ago, when Tang Yixin attended an international conference, he heard a Canadian expert speak highly of the development of Internet medical care in China, which made him interested in Internet medical care.
Some patients live in remote mountainous areas. When their condition changes, they cannot figure out the reason, and they are prone to mood swings. Online communication with Dr. Tang brings a lot of comfort to the patients.
Internet healthcare has brought doctors and patients closer together. In the current era of normalized epidemic prevention, this bridge is becoming more and more important. Before the epidemic, Tang Yixin could only stay in Leshan for at most 100 days, 365 days a year, and spend the rest of the time lecturing and attending clinics all over the country. In the year before the outbreak of the new crown, he took 38 flights. Now, sitting at home, he can follow up with patients everywhere.
“Cure the disease is the wish of the patient and his family, and it is also my wish.” Tang Yixin said.
(Tang Yixin often goes to various places to see patients, the photo was taken before the epidemic)
A few days ago, Tang Yixin also treated a Japanese woman. Introduced by her son, the woman communicated with Tang Yixin online by text and voice. Due to illness, the woman’s mental state was poor and her speech was sparse. After diagnosis and treatment, the condition improved quickly. When Tang Yixin recited the verse of “Spring in the Northland” in Japanese, she happily sang the second half.
“More young people looking for me”
Old Chinese medicine practitioners, quietly began to become popular among the post-90s.
Open Xiaohongshu and share more than 40,000 articles about “Old Chinese Medicine”. Some handwritten prescriptions are very popular. The combination of angelica, white peony root, raw astragalus, and Shouwuteng has become a “secret recipe” for health care among young people.
More and more people are trying to find old Chinese medicine practitioners online. According to the “2021 Top 100 List of Internet + TCM Medical Fields” jointly guided by “China Traditional Chinese Medicine News” and China Medical News Information Association, TCM physicians over 50 years old have the highest attention, the most praise, and the best service.
The Internet has lowered the threshold for medical treatment, allowing more people to feel the warmth of TCM through the Internet.
Yang Zhen is the chief physician of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is 58 years old and is very happy to accept new things. Because of his superb medical skills and active thinking, he has 1 million followers on Weibo. At the beginning of the establishment of Ali Health Xiaolu Traditional Chinese Medicine, he became the first batch of doctors.
When he first came into contact with social platforms such as Weibo, Yang Zhen discovered that onlineThere are many debates about Chinese medicine on the Internet, and many of them are negative. He is a traditional Chinese medicine scholar who has studied Chinese medicine for decades. He uses Chinese medicine to help patients recover from many difficult diseases. It is really difficult to accept the public opinion on the Internet.
Yang Zhen believes that Chinese and Western medicine should give full play to their respective advantages, coordinate and complement each other, and should not attack each other. He often speaks for Chinese medicine on Weibo. In 2016, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Traditional Chinese Medicine was reviewed and approved. This is the first comprehensive law that comprehensively and systematically reflects the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine. Since then, Yang Zhen has clearly felt that the recognition of Chinese medicine has become higher, and more and more people are willing to trust Chinese medicine and try it.
During the epidemic, Yang Zhen was quite busy. Many international students living overseas have chest tightness, cough, and fever, and it is difficult to seek medical treatment in the local area, so they have to ask him for help online. After the online consultation, Yang Zhen will also call local friends or familiar pharmacies to help patients buy medicines.
Yang Zhen believes that although the online consultation lacks the steps of looking, hearing, hearing, and diagnosing the pulse, it greatly improves the efficiency in the step of asking about the condition. During the online consultation, Xiaolu Traditional Chinese Medicine has set up a series of detailed pre-diagnosis questions and answers in the system, so that doctors can have a certain understanding of the patient’s condition before contacting the patient.
(Yang Zhen, Chief Physician, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine)
The popularization of Internet medical treatment has exposed Yang Zhen to a variety of cases. He found that in recent years, the number of young people who came to him for consultation gradually increased, and some diseases began to appear younger.
According to the data of Ali Health Research Institute and Xiaolu Chinese Medicine Internet Platform, in 2021, the number of consultations on spleen and stomach diseases such as stomach pain and gastritis will be quite high. Young people’s high incidence of diseases, insomnia and dreams, acne, sub-health, etc., have also entered the ranking of the top ten common diseases of Internet Chinese medicine.
Yang Zhen is often exposed to these types of diseases. By infiltrating medical knowledge, he slowly guides patients to choose a healthier lifestyle.
However, the younger trend of inquirers sometimes makes Yang Zhen happy. He believes that this means that more and more young people are interested in Chinese medicine.
On weekdays, Yang Zhen receives online consultations for about 2 hours a day. On Fridays and Saturdays, there are many online patients, so he spends more time online. He never felt tired from work, and time passed quickly just like the usual Douyin and Moments. Being able to communicate more with young people is a joy in itself for him.
“It was unimaginable before, and it is now possible,” he said.
Old age, still serving more patients
Xu Xian’s daily life is no different from that of most elderly people. The only difference is that every week he takes time out to diagnose and treat patients online.
Xu Lao is 89 years old this year, and a young voice often appears on the other end of the phone, including young patients born in the 1990s and 2000s.
“Be careful when taking medicine, be sure to take it after meals… Don’t stay up late, get enough sleep!” Elder Xu instructed the patient in detail through his mobile phone. This afternoon, Mr. Xu received three follow-up appointments. Two of them are psoriasis patients, and the other is a 24-year-old girl from Shandong who is worried about severe acne on her face.
Xu Lao has practiced medicine for more than 64 years. He is the former director, researcher, chief physician and doctoral tutor of the Department of Dermatology and Venereal Diseases at Guang’anmen Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. There are always patients waiting outside his clinic. Among them, there are many patients from Heilongjiang, Sichuan, Guangdong and other places who have come all the way to Beijing to seek medical treatment. Often, the surface skin problems reflect the internal organs and physical and mental problems, which require long-term conditioning to achieve curative effects. But for patients from other places, the long distance to seek medical treatment makes the biweekly follow-up a difficult task.
(Traditional Chinese Medicine and Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Dermatology Specialist Xu Xian, Capital National Medical Master)
It is not easy to seek medical treatment. In order to reduce the need for patients to travel, in 2016, Mr. Xu began to conduct remote consultation through Ali Health Xiaolu Traditional Chinese Medicine. You don’t have to go to Beijing to go to Beijing for a follow-up visit directly online.
In 1958, Mr. Xu graduated from Peking University School of Medicine and worked in the Department of Dermatology and Venereal Diseases. At that time, there were not many dermatologists, and most of the patients who came to the clinic were skin diseases caused by the immune system, such as lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis and scleroderma. Xu Lao based his diagnosis and treatment on the basis of Western medicine. Later, he studied Chinese medicine and integrated the principles of Chinese and Western medicine to explore the etiology of skin lesions, and the curative effect was very good.
(Xu Xian joins the alumni association)
After starting online consultation, Mr. Xu found that more and more young people came to him for treatment. Contemporary young people pay attention to their appearance and have high requirements for skin health. They trust more experienced and reliable experts like Mr. Xu.
Physicians are infested, and it is necessary to treat both body and mind – this is the consensus of Mr. Xu and many Chinese medicine experts. The mental state of patients in dermatology is relatively fragile, especially those with vitiligo, psoriasis and acne. They often seek medical treatment because of repeated attacks, which affects their life and work. During the consultation, Mr. Xu was very concerned about the communication with the patient, never ignored the patient’s mental state, and tried his best to build his confidence and give psychological comfort every time.
(Xu Xian has seen more than 1,700 patients in Xiaolu Traditional Chinese Medicine)
For this veteran expert, born in 1932, treating illnesses and saving lives is a lifelong pursuit. In his old age, Xu Lao still insisted on receiving medical consultations online. He also thought that if the number of patients is large, he can find more spare time to communicate with patients on the Internet.
“In the past six years, more than 1,700 people have come to see me on the Internet for medical treatment, and I heard that it has saved them more than 1 million kilometers.” Speaking of this, Xu Lao’s eyes were full of smiles .