"Sharpen up" acupuncture study

Although it is home to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), China must do much more to improve its academic research capacity for acupuncture, a form of TCM, to take the lead worldwide on both the academic and clinical sides. At present, among all academic theses on acupuncture indexed by the Science Citation Index (SCI), a leading world thesis index system, only 5 percent are from the Chinese mainland, according to Wang Linpeng, the director of the acupuncture and moxibustion center of the Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is affiliated with the Capital Medical University. Although Chinese acupuncturists absolutely excel worldwide in clinical practice, "they are not as good as their foreign peers in academic capacity, particularly Western-style research methods and lab experiment design," he told China Daily on Friday during the 2011 International Symposium on Acupuncture. Studies by TCM practitioners - including acupuncturists - largely focus on their area of specialization, and few are in line with global interest in the medical science that has been proven effective over thousands of years, he said. "Chinese TCM practitioners are very good at treating conditions, but they are clumsy at showing how and why it really works in an internationally accepted 'language' and 'manner'," said Gao Sihua, chancellor of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. "It's especially true in TCM circles, where few Chinese practitioners would regularly follow international academic articles and research trends," Wang said. Measured by the number of articles on acupuncture indexed by SCI, the US and European countries lead globally, he said.