A Study of Integration Chinese and Western Medicine: An Ontology-Based Perspective

• Main Authors: Chien-Chung Tu, 杜健忠
• Other Authors: Kwoting Fang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16394389690231874845

博士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 資訊管理系 === 103 === In China, the government directed the integration of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and western medicine in 1950. In Taiwan, since 1958, communities have begun to establish Chinese medical schools to train medical doctors who are knowledgeable in both TCM and western medicine. In addition, in 1933, communities established an integration society for TCM and western medicine. TCM and western medicine have different backgrounds in terms of development, including philosophy and concept, as well as different scientific identification of syndromes. In western medicine, when treating an “illness”, one must find out the root cause and provide treatments. In TCM, it is believed that the same type of “illness” can have various syndromes. In order to discuss “treatment” one must first identify the “syndromes”. For the same type of illness, when the syndromes are different, the treatments can also be different. In western countries, it is believed that “repeated verification” is the basic condition for science. When using various prescriptions to treat the same type of “illness”, it is difficult to perform repeated verification of the illness. Therefore, it is difficult for western medicine to accept that TCM is scientific, and this creates obstacles for other countries to engage in the integration of TCM and western medicine. Recent research on the integration of TCM and western medicine include developing diagnostic criteria, clinical validation, and animal trials, etc. It is hoped that through these investigations, TCM can be verified through scientific approaches, and in turn, the results can serve as the foundation for the integration of TCM and western medicine. Most of the research targets specific division or specific illnesses, and lacks comprehensive historical studies on diagnostic data. In our study, we explore the research philosophy and science of TCM and western medicine. From literature, we discuss that the concept of treatment in TCM is one “illness” with multiple “syndromes”, and the “prescriptions” for treatment can be used to show the link between “illness” and “syndromes”. In terms of the discussion on “illness” and “syndromes”, a “prescriptions and corresponding syndrome knowledge database” is established based on the types of syndromes covered by the literature, as well as the corresponding medication prescribed. Sample TCM files in the National Health Insurance Researcg Database from 2002 to 2013 are used as the research subjects. A cluster approach and association rules are used to explore the underlying knowledge. Research results show that, from the 852,276 sets of raw data from outpatient records, 630,014 sets of effective prescriptions for outpatients were identified. The number of recorded classifications of disease from outpatients was 4,151, which is only 24% of the total International Classification of Disease, ICD-9 (15,334). There are 301 commonly used prescriptions in TCM, and 34 sub-commonly used prescriptions for 287 corresponding types of syndromes. Combining the above knowledge, a system for deriving medical cases is established. In the derived system, one can enquire the repeated “syndromes” for the same “illness”. Moreover, different “syndromes” for the same “illness” can be the evidence for “repeated verification”.