Taipei Veterans General Hospital moves traditional medicine department to new site, linking precision care with AI

Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s traditional medicine department has left its former basement outpatient area for a larger, brighter space on the eighth floor of the Second Outpatient Building.

The department, which has developed for nearly 50 years, is now preparing to push further into “precision traditional Chinese medicine.” Its work includes artificial intelligence, digital pulse diagnosis and analysis of National Health Insurance data. It also provides acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine weight-loss services and physical conditioning, while developing integrated care for cancer, stroke and hospitalized patients.

Hospital president Chen Wei-ming traced the department’s roots to an acupuncture research committee established in 1971 at the government’s direction. An acupuncture clinic followed in 1974, and the unit later passed through the acupuncture and traditional medicine departments before becoming a formal traditional medicine department in 2013.

The department has combined clinical work, teaching and research over the years. It developed a disposable acupuncture needle in 1982, published Taiwan’s first traditional Chinese medicine paper in an SCI-indexed journal in 1990, and began using functional magnetic resonance imaging in 2001 to study how acupuncture works. It also developed the “Zhengyi Formula” and a traditional Chinese medicine prescription for treating Omicron during the pandemic, according to the hospital.

The move expands cooperation with National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. President Lin Chi-hung thanked the hospital for preparing clinical training facilities for students in the university’s Chinese medicine program. Donor Tsai Kung-ju, who has received care from the department, contributed equipment and said she hoped the integration of Chinese and Western medicine would benefit more people. The department received the Health Ministry’s first National Chinese Medicine Development Award in 2021.

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