Courses abound in traditional Chinese medicine

With dark-coloured soup for medication and illegible characters on papyrus for prescriptions, Chinese medicine was regarded by many in the west as little more than superstitious charlatanism.

Practitioners of Chinese medicine have for years fought to be recognised and have their progress in the field of herbal research acknowledged, and the practice is now increasingly seen as a credible and effective alternative to western medicine.

Recently, amendments were made to the Certification for Employee Benefits Ordinance to allow employees to file work-related injury claims with certificates issued by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.

This growing recognition has boosted the demand for professional qualifications in the field. The school of Chinese medicine at Baptist University offers a new master's programme in pharmaceutical sciences in Chinese medicine to meet the rising demand. Jiang Zhihong, the programme director, said the introduction of the course was intended to hasten the pace of the development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong.

'The development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong is still at a preliminary stage,' he said. 'Hong Kong should hasten its pace in training quality experts to conduct modern Chinese medicine and pharmaceutical researches in order to meet the needs of society and foster modernisation.'

With a practical approach to strengthening students' knowledge and skills in pharmaceutical sciences, the course attracted Chinese medical pharmacists, senior managers of Chinese medicine pharmaceutical companies and registered practitioners.

'Students will learn about the latest research methodologies and technologies ... especially in the areas of product development, quality assurance, drug safety assessment, production management and trading of Chinese medicines or healthcare products,' Professor Jiang said.