Ancient Wisdom, Modern Medicine: The Guangdong Hospital Story

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is collection of medical practices handed down over 5,000 years. While it plays a major part in alternative medicine around the world, it actually accounts significantly for health care in China. Integrating this tradition with modern Western medicine presents both a huge opportunity and a huge challenge to hospitals.

Guangdong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, one of the largest in all of China, collaborated with IBM to deploy an intelligent medical records system that consolidates medical data from multiple systems into a single record that can be easily shared.

The new, first-of-its-kind Clinical and Health Records Analytics and Sharing (CHAS) system incorporates advanced semantics technology that enables it to understand and analyze the scientific meaning of specific terms used in individual patient records. The system can process those terms regardless of format, terminology or language into one standardized document, simplifying data tracking and encouraging rapid data access.

With data from both TCM and Western medicine in a single location, hospital personnel can analyze the effects of both disciplines. This allows them to determine the best treatment for each illness or condition, opening up new doors to solving chronic diseases and offering preventive care. Guangdong Hospital can now offer the most holistic medicine in the world, with help from IBM. Let’s build a smarter planet –