SINGAPORE: After suffering a stroke in July, Mr Tan Kay Chuan is now on the road to recovery at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) – with the help of a different kind of treatment.
The 60-year-old is receiving acupuncture twice a week as part of his rehabilitation.
Such traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practices could soon be part of mainstream inpatient treatment in Singapore, under a new initiative that aims to bring Eastern and Western medical practices closer together in the country’s national healthcare system.
On Thursday (Oct 9), TTSH inked a partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to explore how TCM can complement Western medicine in pain management, rehabilitation and palliative care.
The hospital offers a range of TCM treatments such as acupuncture and cupping.
It is now looking to better integrate these practices with Western medicine, so they become part of a more holistic patient care plan.
To that end, TTSH’s healthcare cluster, NHG Health, has submitted this integrative medicine model as a proposal to the Ministry of Health’s regulator sandbox.
The ministry has been testing and evaluating 18 evidence-based TCM treatments in public hospitals since January this year as part of the TCM Integrative Sandbox Initiative. These treatments include acupuncture for migraines, post-stroke rehabilitation and cancer-related care.
Professor Benjamin Seet, group chairman of the medical board (research) at NHG Health, said he hopes the partnership between TTSH and NTU can pave the way for the authorities to expand subsidies to cover more types of traditional medicine in public clinics and hospitals.
Currently, subsidies only apply to acupuncture for lower back and neck pain.
“I think obviously the potential applications are way beyond that,” he told reporters at the Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress held at the Singapore Expo, where the TTSH-NTU partnership was announced.
The sandbox will allow TTSH to test and gather clinical evidence on what could work better when caring for patients, said Prof Seet.
“It could involve extending acupuncture to other areas. It could involve other techniques, like tuina or acupressure. It could eventually move into the prescription of the herbal treatments as well,” he added.
“We want to do this in a very regulated, a very controlled environment, so that we can gather the evidence to show what works (and) what doesn't work. Ultimately, that will guide clinical practice in the future.”
Associate Professor Linda Zhong, director of biomedical sciences and Chinese medicine at NTU, said the university will work with TTSH’s allied health physicians and doctors to assess a patient’s suitability for TCM treatment.
“(We will) then decide in what conditions we can use acupuncture, and what is the frequency and what is the duration of the acupuncture will be treated to the patients. This will ensure the patient’s safety, and then we can assess their effectiveness,” she added.
From 2027, NTU’s Chinese Medicine students will also do a 13-week clinical rotation at the hospital for three hours a week in their final year.
The aim is to prepare a new generation of TCM practitioners to serve a rising demand for treatments that mix Eastern and Western medicine.
According to the national population health survey conducted in 2022, one in five adults in Singapore use TCM every year, with nearly 40 per cent of them pairing it with Western care.
“Our students are also trained in biomedical sciences and Western medicine, and they also learn the basic knowledge of clinical research so that they will use the same language to express the patient's history, diagnosis and treatment,” noted Assoc Prof Zhang.
Teo Chun Yong, secretary-general of the Singapore Chinese Physicians' Association, said certain TCM treatments, such as those for chronic pain and infertility, have been gaining popularity.
Even migrant workers have turned to TCM to manage their pain from a workplace injury and get better so they can return to work more quickly, he noted.
At Chung Hwa Medical Institution, which serves as the association’s headquarters and houses a TCM clinic, practitioners are now using modern diagnostic tools to perform tongue and pulse examinations, said Mr Teo.
This is to heed a recent call by the government for more evidence-based TCM treatments.
“I’m (not for the idea that) we try to change everything overnight and say: ‘You have to accept TCM’,” Mr Teo told CNA’s Singapore Tonight programme.
“I think what we could do more is find common grounds whereby we can work towards the common good for the patients.”
Continue reading...
The 60-year-old is receiving acupuncture twice a week as part of his rehabilitation.
Such traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practices could soon be part of mainstream inpatient treatment in Singapore, under a new initiative that aims to bring Eastern and Western medical practices closer together in the country’s national healthcare system.
On Thursday (Oct 9), TTSH inked a partnership with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to explore how TCM can complement Western medicine in pain management, rehabilitation and palliative care.
The hospital offers a range of TCM treatments such as acupuncture and cupping.
It is now looking to better integrate these practices with Western medicine, so they become part of a more holistic patient care plan.
To that end, TTSH’s healthcare cluster, NHG Health, has submitted this integrative medicine model as a proposal to the Ministry of Health’s regulator sandbox.
The ministry has been testing and evaluating 18 evidence-based TCM treatments in public hospitals since January this year as part of the TCM Integrative Sandbox Initiative. These treatments include acupuncture for migraines, post-stroke rehabilitation and cancer-related care.
Related:
TESTING THE FUTURE OF TCM
Professor Benjamin Seet, group chairman of the medical board (research) at NHG Health, said he hopes the partnership between TTSH and NTU can pave the way for the authorities to expand subsidies to cover more types of traditional medicine in public clinics and hospitals.
Currently, subsidies only apply to acupuncture for lower back and neck pain.
“I think obviously the potential applications are way beyond that,” he told reporters at the Singapore Health and Biomedical Congress held at the Singapore Expo, where the TTSH-NTU partnership was announced.
The sandbox will allow TTSH to test and gather clinical evidence on what could work better when caring for patients, said Prof Seet.
“It could involve extending acupuncture to other areas. It could involve other techniques, like tuina or acupressure. It could eventually move into the prescription of the herbal treatments as well,” he added.
“We want to do this in a very regulated, a very controlled environment, so that we can gather the evidence to show what works (and) what doesn't work. Ultimately, that will guide clinical practice in the future.”
Associate Professor Linda Zhong, director of biomedical sciences and Chinese medicine at NTU, said the university will work with TTSH’s allied health physicians and doctors to assess a patient’s suitability for TCM treatment.
“(We will) then decide in what conditions we can use acupuncture, and what is the frequency and what is the duration of the acupuncture will be treated to the patients. This will ensure the patient’s safety, and then we can assess their effectiveness,” she added.
NTU STUDENTS TO DO CLINICAL ROTATION
From 2027, NTU’s Chinese Medicine students will also do a 13-week clinical rotation at the hospital for three hours a week in their final year.
The aim is to prepare a new generation of TCM practitioners to serve a rising demand for treatments that mix Eastern and Western medicine.
According to the national population health survey conducted in 2022, one in five adults in Singapore use TCM every year, with nearly 40 per cent of them pairing it with Western care.
“Our students are also trained in biomedical sciences and Western medicine, and they also learn the basic knowledge of clinical research so that they will use the same language to express the patient's history, diagnosis and treatment,” noted Assoc Prof Zhang.
Teo Chun Yong, secretary-general of the Singapore Chinese Physicians' Association, said certain TCM treatments, such as those for chronic pain and infertility, have been gaining popularity.
Even migrant workers have turned to TCM to manage their pain from a workplace injury and get better so they can return to work more quickly, he noted.
At Chung Hwa Medical Institution, which serves as the association’s headquarters and houses a TCM clinic, practitioners are now using modern diagnostic tools to perform tongue and pulse examinations, said Mr Teo.
This is to heed a recent call by the government for more evidence-based TCM treatments.
“I’m (not for the idea that) we try to change everything overnight and say: ‘You have to accept TCM’,” Mr Teo told CNA’s Singapore Tonight programme.
“I think what we could do more is find common grounds whereby we can work towards the common good for the patients.”
Continue reading...