TCM Hospital - Jinan
A picture taken outside the Jinan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital where our 12 week observation study takes place.
Title.
Hospital main lobby entrance.
Title.
Our first day of hospital observation. This picture was taken in the foreign affairs building before heading to the hospital.
Left to Right: "Yu" (foreign affairs administrator), Fuyi, Debbie, Mitch, Rick
Acupuncture Department - Observation
In front of the Acupuncture Department. During our first 2 weeks observation in the acupuncture department, we follow mainly Dr. Shan and Dr. Ge. We see many cases of lumbago, facial paralysis, insomnia, headache, weight loss, and cervical spondylosis. From Left to Right:
Yin Ying (our secondary translator for the department), Fan (our main translator), Rick, Mitch, Dr. Shan, Debbie.
Lecture - MigraineTreatment. Dr. Shan is a leading expert in migraine treatment in the acupuncture department and we were priviledged to have a lecture on migraine treatment given by herself. It was extremely informative and we we learned new information on treatments and procedures to help migraine sufferers such as injection therapy, ear acupuncture and regular acupuncture. We also covered patterns of disease.
Lecture - Weight Loss Treatment. Dr. Ge is a leading expert on obesity and weight loss treatment in the acupuncture department. During our observation time here, we were also privileged to have a lecture by Dr. Ge covering primary and secondary obesity, patterns of disease and related acupuncture points to be used, meridian theory acupuncture for treatment and ear acupuncture.
Title.
This is "Fan"....Our main translator while attending the acupuncture department. Fan is currently a master's degree student at the TCM university.
Title.
A picture of the acupuncture department corridor on a typical morning.
Title.
This is a typical picture of most rooms in the acupuncture department holding approximately 3 patients (3 beds) per room.
Title.
On the same floor, was a larger room holding up to approximately 12 patients. Privacy for the patients is limited.
Internal Medicine Departments - Observation
Our next arranged schedule of observation took place mainly on the 3rd floor of the hospital where we spent most of our time visiting various departments such as pediatrics, neurology, rheumatology, cardiology, respiratory, endocrinology, cancer, gynecology and gastrointestinal.
This picture is of the 3rd floor lobby where we usually met our translators to start observation for the day.
Title.
Lobby area 3rd floor. FYI...smoking permitted !
Title.
3rd floor corridor where patients are waiting to see the doctors and where we did most of our observation time.
This is pretty typical of the look and feel for most of the department wings in the hospital.
Title.
This is a typical scene where patients crowd into the specific department rooms to see the attending doctors. Behind the mob of people is the doctor and usually some TCM students assisting the doctors by writing the confirmed herbal prescriptions or performing various in-take procedures that the doctor requires to help keep the process moving smoothly.
Title.
A look at one of the department rooms once the patients have slowed down for the day. They are certainly not very big and are usually extremely busy places throughout the day with privacy for medical discussions basically non-existent.
Title.
It's not uncommon to be approached by kids who are curious about who we are and what we're doing. Here, Debbie poses with some kids in the hospital waiting room.
Herbal Pharmacy
This is the herbal pharmacy at the hospital where patients bring their herbal prescriptions to be filled.
Title.
A closer look inside the herbal pharmacy.
Title.
Herbal pharmacy.
Pediatrics Department - Observation
We unfortunately do not have any pictures of our time in the pediatrics department. However, we did enjoy our time there observing with 3 different doctors. They were all extremely helpful and took the time to share their knowledge with us. We spent time with Dr. Ma, Dr. Zhang Bao Qing and Dr. Cao Hong. All of which were well suited for their chosen departments....all were quite fun loving and enjoyed their time spent there !
Our translator for the week in Pediatrics was "Nancy". She did an excellent job collecting information for us ! We also saw many adorable kids and loved the interaction we sometimes got to enjoy with them !
Monday Mornings - Neurology Department
This is a picture of us and Dr. Sun Ji Lin our Neurology Department Doctor.
Dr. Sun Ji Lin has been an excellent doctor to spend time with ! She involves us in her discussion regarding patients and has been very helpful in providing added information during our time with her.
Title.
Lecture - Insomnia. Dr. Sun Ji Lin (Neurology) provided a short lecture on insomnia where we covered pattern of disease, syndrome differentiation and appropriate herbal prescriptions for each syndrome.
Monday Afternoons - Rheumatology Department
We unfortunately do not have a picture of our rheumatology doctor.
Lecture - Rheumatoid Arthritis. Dr. Song Shao Liang, our Rheumatology Department Doctor, provided a lecture covering various types of arthritis along with appropriate herbal prescriptions for each type.
Tuesday Mornings - Cardiology Department
This is Dr. Gao, our Cardiology Department Doctor.
So far, we have seen cases of various types of chest discomfort, myocarditis, hypertension, and tachycardia.
Title.
Dr. Gao (Cardiology) with his TCM students in the patient consultation room.
Tuesday Afternoons - Respiratory Department
Dr. Tao Kai, our Respiratory Department Doctor.
Dr. Tao Kai has been truly fantastic to spend time with. He's an extremely busy and popular doctor but often takes the time to provide added information about the patients we are seeing and has been extremely helpful in allowing us to feel pulse, observe tongue diagnosis and listen to breathing sounds. Dr. Tao Kai has recently been invited for a permanent position in a hospital in Hong Kong because of his great skill in dealing with respiratory illness.
Title.
A picture of us with Dr. Tao Kai (Respiratory) in his office.
Lecture - Asthma. We were excited that Dr. Tao Kai provided a lecture on asthma where he covered the clinical manifestations of the main types of asthma along with his herbal prescriptions for each type during the acute and dormant stages. We were very happy that he shared his knowledge with us and his personal prescriptions that he commonly uses for treatment of asthma.
Title.
The 3 of us get invited to a special honorary lunch for Dr. Tao Kai a few days before he leaves for Hong Kong to start his new position. Here we are with some of his students and his wife who is also a Doctor.
Wednesday Mornings - Endocrinology Department
Dr. Xu Yin Sheng, Endocrinology Department.
Even though Dr. Xu Yin Sheng attends a very busy department, he still offers and encourages us to ask him any questions we may have.
Wednesday Afternoons - Cancer Department
This is Dr. Zhu Hai Hong our Cancer Department Doctor.
Dr. Zhu Hai Hong speaks excellent English and has been a great doctor to learn from and spend time with. Though he too is a very busy and popular doctor, he takes time to explain information about the patients conditions, their history and differentiation of syndromes. We are also given the opportunity to feel pulse, observe tongue diagnosis and discuss our findings with him.
Thursday Afternoons - Gynecology Department
Dr. Ye Qing, our Gynecology Department Doctor.
Dr. Ye Qing is a leading expert in her field. She is a very busy and popular Doctor within the department and even though she's busy, she has been great at providing and sharing information with us on differentiation, lab reports and imaging results. She takes the time to speak to us, offering information that she feels may be helpful for us to understand.
Lecture - Irregular Menstruation. We were very fortunate to have a lecture provided by a Doctor in the hospital with great knowledge and experience in dealing with gynecological disorders. We discussed the various TCM syndrome's associated with irregular menstruation, their signs and symptoms and specific herbal prescriptions associated with each type of syndrome. It was very helpful !
Friday Afternoons - Gastrointestinal Department
Dr. Cao Zhu Qin, our Gastrointestinal Department Doctor.
Dr. Cao Zhu Qin is an extremely busy doctor in the hospital. He had many students who observed with him and who appeared to be learning a lot of great knowledge. The students were very helpful in providing us with their case notes and corresponding prescriptions so that we could have it translated for our own benefit. We saw many very interesting cases of GI disorders and received many new herbal prescriptions for some common GI diseases.
Du Moxa Department
Here we are in the Du Moxa Department with the leading expert of this type of treatment (she is the Doctor sitting at the table) and we also meet a second Doctor practicing in the same department.
This was a very interesting afternoon observing a very unique type of TCM treatment for various spinal conditions. The Doctor has practiced and researched this treatment for over 20 years.
Title.
The Du Moxa patient treatment room.
Title.
The Du Moxa treatment begins with applying a thin line of herbal powder down the spine. A length of special white paper is then laid over the line of herbs. Next, a large amount of pureed ginger is placed on the paper all the way down the spine. Once this is in place, loose moxa herb is rolled into a special shape and then overlapped all the way down the spine. Lastly, the moxa is lit and left to burn. This process is repeated with more fresh moxa once it burns out and takes approx. 3 hours to complete the whole treatment.
Here, the Doctor is applying the pureed ginger.
Title.
A picture of the completed process just prior to the moxa being lit.
Title.
The treatment in progress.
Dermatology Department
This is Dr. Du, the main doctor we observed in the dermatology department.
Dr. Du is a leading expert in his field and is very well known within Jinan and throughout China for his work, experience and research. We saw many interesting cases of common diseases and were given many herbal prescriptions that had been proven successful in treatment with patients.
Tuina Massage Department - Children and Adult
This is Dr. Wang, one of the main doctors within the Tuina Department.
Dr. Wang works both with adults and children but is very famous within China for his work with children and his success with treatment of children's diseases using tuina massage.
We really enjoyed our time in the Tuina department. Everyone was very helpful and the atmosphere was very "relaxed" and a lot of fun to observe. We even had the opportunity to work on patients and given some pointers from the experts !
Our Translators - Internal Medicine Department
This is Gavin, our main morning translator. Gavin was extremely helpful and extremely knowledgeable. We appreciated his help greatly ! Gavin is finishing his last year of school.
This is Liu, our main afternoon translator. Liu was a very helpful translator and is finishing her last year of school.
Title.
Here we are with Richard, our Tuina Department translator (centre in the pink shirt). We really enjoyed our time with Richard and appreciated his knowledge of tuina massage and Chinese medicine overall.
We are eating lunch at a famous dumpling restaurant near the hospital. It was really yummy !
New TCM University Campus - Jinan
Here we at the entrance of the new TCM university campus in Jinan. Opened this year.
During our last week in Jinan, we were given a tour of the new TCM university campus. The campus is extremely large and serves approximately 7,000 students ! Much of the landscape appeared deserted but will eventually fill in once the campus begins to mature over time.