TCM services for international patients and tourists

As the idea of combining sightseeing with rehabilitation gains popularity, businesses and non-governmental organizations in the Chinese capital are turning it into reality.

The World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies and the China International Collaborating Center of Chinese Medicine have released their online platform for programming traditional Chinese medicine with tourism in the country, while Beijing itself is promoting a package of such services.

Chen Lixin, deputy secretary-general of the federation, said their online platform in 12 languages offers chain services mainly for rheumatism, fibromyalgia syndrome, periarthritis of the shoulder and treatment for children with cerebral palsy. Though mainly based in Beijing, "we also offer tailor-made services that meet patients’ specific needs elsewhere in the country and even overseas," he said.

Applications can be made online for initial appraisal and ensuing detailed arrangement.

"We hope to turn this into one of the world’s most valuable rehabilitation platforms," Chen said at a forum during the 2017 Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services, held from Sunday through today.

The federation is putting its own credit, cultivated through the decade, to ensure sound management on channels, standards and credit, said the federation’s Secretary-General Sang Binsheng. "Accreditation is one of the key links of our federation in standardizing and regulating services."

The federation, with 253 member societies in 67 countries and regions, can link the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine worldwide. More than 30,000 TCM doctors are available for distinct medical and rehabilitation services.

Lin Nangy, publisher of The World and China Magazine, who helped release a tri-lingual book on standard translations of traditional Chinese medical terms in Hungarian and English, thanks to the efforts of former Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy, noted that Hungarian professionals are seeking cooperation with the federation in this field.

Local professionals in Hungary, which legalized TCM practices in 2013, are seeking to establish health centers featuring Chinese medicine in Budapest and other areas of the European country, Lin said.

Chen added that as an international institution, "the WFCMS feels it’s our duty to provide systematic services to avoid disorderly competition among domestic providers that could affect overseas patients’ confidence or confusion."

Patients who have joined the program in China could receive health care and additional services for review or continued rehabilitation after returning home, thanks to its wide network of accredited professionals, he said.

At the fair the federation inked agreements with tourism agencies in France and Beijing for cooperation.

Local institutions and medical authorities in Beijing also have been standardizing TCM services for international patients and tourists.

Cui Yongqiang, director of the Beijing Research Center for International TCM Tourism, said TCM has demonstrated comparative advantages over modern medicine in treating a large number of diseases such as cancer, insomnia, infertility, psoriasis, chronic pain, degenerative cardiovascular disease, femur head necrosis, prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc, cervical spondylopathy and lumbago.

The center has released a package of chain services for overseas patients to come to Beijing for both treatment and tourism. The services fit those people who have found the effects of modern treatment in their home country unsatisfactory, he said. The city also has accredited three groups of traditional medical institutions for such programs.

"The beauty of such programs lies not just in the better understanding of TCM, but in people’s expectations for a healthy life while embracing the joy of tourism," said Luo Zenggang, deputy director of the Beijing Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The center’s main function is to develop and promote service standards of Beijing international TCM tourism, ensure the qualifications of service providers and organize professional training.

All the service providers for international TCM-tourism programs are accredited health care providers, said Li Jiangbin, a division chief in Beijing’s TCM administration.

Li said the package is a systematic grouping of high-end and characteristic services that combine Beijing’s chosen resources in tourism, medical treatment and rehabilitation.

"We hope through such packages, Beijing can offer whole-chain hearty services for overseas people from their first-time consultation by phone, email, fax, or WeChat notice, to the air or train terminal for departure," Li said.