Character file
Zhang Boli, an expert in internal medicine of traditional Chinese medicine, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of the medical and health department, a master of traditional Chinese medicine, a member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, director of the national key laboratory for the creation of modern Chinese medicine, and a leader of the national key discipline of internal medicine of traditional Chinese medicine. He has been engaged in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine for a long time. He has won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, Wu Jieping Medical Prize, etc., and won the national honorary title of "People's Hero" in 2020.
◎ Our reporter Chen Xi
On May 9, at the Fourth International Development Conference of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the New Quality Productivity of Digital Intelligence Enabling Big Health Industry held in Tianjin, many intelligent scientific and technological achievements deeply integrated with the traditional Chinese medicine industry were eye-catching.
Modern information technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data have brought convenience to social production and life. At the same time, these technologies have also effectively promoted the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.
In recent years, Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a master of traditional Chinese medicine, led the team to follow the development law of traditional Chinese medicine, make full use of modern scientific achievements and technical methods, consolidate and carry forward the distinctive advantages of traditional Chinese medicine, promote the modernization, industrialization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine, and promote the high-quality development of traditional Chinese medicine.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Science and Technology Daily, Zhang Boli said that he should always adhere to the path of integrity, innovation, inheritance and development of traditional Chinese medicine, which is deeply integrated with the essence of traditional Chinese medicine theory and modern technology. This is also the path of modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.
Advanced science and technology for our own use
Reporter: At the recently held Digital Intelligence Enabling New Quality Productivity of the Big Health Industry and the Fourth International Development Conference of Traditional Chinese Medicine, you said that the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine is the mission of the times, and the combination of traditional Chinese medicine and artificial intelligence is an inevitable development trend. In your opinion, what role does modern information technology dominated by artificial intelligence play in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine?
Zhang Boli: The inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese medicine cannot be separated from digital empowerment. Modern science and technology is the "wing" of the development of traditional Chinese medicine. The harder the "wing", the higher and farther it will fly. The current development of traditional Chinese medicine is characterized by high technology, high efficiency and high quality, which conforms to the new development concept and will also become an important advanced productivity.
In recent years, modern information science and technology, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain big data, have developed rapidly, effectively promoting the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine. AI has also brought new development opportunities for TCM. I always said that we should make use of the current advanced science and technology. With the help of advanced science and technology, the achievements of modernization in the field of traditional Chinese medicine will continue to emerge. Large model, cloud computing and other technologies will promote TCM to achieve greater results in disease prevention, health management, drug research and development, and make more outstanding contributions to human health.
Reporter: Can you give an example of what specific work you have done in leading the team in the process of promoting the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine?
Zhang Boli: Since the 1990s, I have undertaken three 973 Program projects, one of which is to transform traditional Chinese medicine from traditional roots and turf into a quantifiable component with clear functional substances.
In recent years, the National Key Laboratory for the Creation of Modern Chinese Medicine has cooperated closely with the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units, and has produced a series of achievements. For example, at the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, our team collected more than 1000 patients' information from more than 20 hospitals in one week, and relied on Tianjin Supercomputing Center to process and calculate these information. After data classification and expert discussion, we judged that the epidemic was "damp toxin disease". Traditional Chinese medicine pays attention to syndrome differentiation and treatment. When the syndrome is clear, the treatment method is also clear. Based on this, our treatment plan was written into the national diagnosis and treatment guide.
With the support of classic famous prescriptions, anti epidemic experience, big data and artificial intelligence technology, we screened more than 60 kinds of Chinese patent medicines that may be effective for Xinguan, and then developed the Xuanfei Baidu Granule with exact curative effect, which was selected into the "three drugs and three prescriptions"; The preparation of "Qingjin Yiqi Granule", which has therapeutic effect on the sequelae of the new crown, has also been developed, and its wide application has achieved very good benefits.
Intelligent scientific and technological achievements promote the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine
Reporter: Recently, many intelligent scientific and technological achievements deeply integrated with the traditional Chinese medicine industry have been released. How are these achievements deeply integrated with the essence of TCM theory and modern information technology?
Zhang Boli: Now many advanced equipment can realize intelligent diagnosis and personalized treatment. By learning and calculating a large number of TCM medical record data, these devices can assist TCM doctors in diagnosing patients and improving the accuracy of diagnosis. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners can provide patients with comprehensive health management services, including diet advice, exercise guidance, etc., by combining traditional Chinese medicine intelligent wearable devices. The large model can also help researchers better understand the mechanism of the complex network of multiple targets of traditional Chinese medicine, and help research and development of new drugs.
Reporter: What is the significance of these intelligent scientific and technological achievements in promoting the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine?
Zhang Boli: For example, the big model of "Mathematical Intelligence and Materia Medica" is based on advanced tools such as Huawei's surging computing power and vector library, and is jointly developed by Tianshili and Hua Weiyun on the basis of Huawei's Pangu big language model and Pangu drug molecular big model. It has 38 billion parameters. Based on the massive text data pre training of traditional Chinese medicine, combined with the enhancement of vector database retrieval, and the fine-tuning of multiple scenes of traditional Chinese medicine research and development, it can better help researchers to complete the mining and summary of theoretical evidence of traditional Chinese medicine.
In addition, the "Tianhe Lingshu" big model is a professional big model for the field of acupuncture and moxibustion in traditional Chinese medicine. It innovatively carries out professional 3D modeling of all acupoints of the human body, and successfully constructs a lifelike 3D acupuncture digital human. This big model will strengthen the mining and application of TCM evidence-based evidence data, and provide new impetus for the innovation and development of TCM industry.
Reporter: What changes has digital intelligence technology brought to the development of TCM modernization?
Zhang Boli: The use of artificial intelligence technology and advanced manufacturing technology to promote the deep integration of informatization and industrialization can improve the quality of pharmaceutical enterprises from research and development, production to circulation chain, play the role of energy conservation, consumption reduction, quality and efficiency improvement, and serve the high-quality development of the Chinese medicine industry.
Take the new paradigm of research and development of "mathematical intelligence Chinese medicine" as an example. Dr. Yan Kaijing, Executive Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory for the Creation of Modern Chinese Medicine and Chairman of Tianshili Pharmaceutical Group, once pointed out that the new paradigm of research and development takes artificial intelligence and other disruptive science and technology as a breakthrough, innovatively configures new production factors including massive data of traditional Chinese medicine, combines cloud computing, big models and other new technical means, and through the combination of traditional Chinese medicine products Digital intellectualization of material basis, quantitative intellectualization of toxic effects, quantitative intellectualization of production quality control, quantitative intellectualization of clinical application, and quantitative intellectualization of consumption cognition lead modern Chinese medicine to a new height of precise medication, precise production, and precise efficacy. By building an intelligent integrated platform of the "digital intelligence herbal medicine" model of traditional Chinese medicine, and creating a new paradigm of "digital intelligence traditional Chinese medicine" resources, research and development, manufacturing, supply, clinical application, and consumer cognition, the whole chain of traditional Chinese medicine industry can be transformed and upgraded by leaps and bounds.
Traditional Chinese medicine needs efforts in many aspects to embrace digital intelligence
Reporter: On the whole, how about the application of modern information technology in Chinese medicine?
Zhang Boli: In the era of artificial intelligence and big data, traditional Chinese medicine and these advanced technologies have achieved mutual integration. For example, "Haihe No. 1" and "Haihe No. 2" developed by the National Key Laboratory of Modern Traditional Chinese Medicine Development have realized the efficient and rapid screening and preparation of effective components of traditional Chinese medicine. The Evidence Base System for Evidence based Research in Traditional Chinese Medicine (EVDS) established by the Evidence based Medicine Center of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine can automatically evaluate and analyze based on published research results, and can form evidence reports in combination with expert experience. In addition, the remote consultation system of traditional Chinese medicine has also been widely used, which greatly facilitates the treatment in other places.
However, some aspects are still in the initial stage. For example, digital medicine and smart medicine. In addition, it is also an important task to combine artificial intelligence technology with traditional Chinese medicine manufacturing. We believe that a series of traditional industries represented by traditional Chinese medicine will soon usher in transformation.
Reporter: What problems and challenges does modern science and technology empower traditional Chinese medicine face?
Zhang Boli: For example, in terms of pharmacy, most Chinese medicine enterprises have realized mechanized pharmacy, but the overall level of pharmacy automation is not high, the level and concept of lean management also need to be improved, and the digital pharmaceutical production line has not yet been fully covered.
In addition, the basic research of traditional Chinese medicine is relatively weak, especially in the mechanism of action, material basis and application theory of traditional Chinese medicine. This has restricted the accurate identification of the effective ingredients of traditional Chinese medicine and the scientific interpretation of the mechanism of action, and hindered the modernization process of traditional Chinese medicine.
Although modern science and technology, including information technology and biotechnology, has provided new tools and platforms for the development of traditional Chinese medicine, it is still a challenge to effectively combine these modern science and technology with the theory and practice of traditional Chinese medicine.
Reporter: What do you think are the solutions to these problems and challenges?
Zhang Boli: I think it is possible to introduce relevant policies such as high quality and high price drugs, guide enterprises to apply digital technology in production design, manufacturing process control and product circulation, and improve lean management and quality control. It can encourage qualified enterprises to build intelligent factories and promote the Chinese medicine industry to move towards the high-end. Through the establishment of special science and technology projects, we can support the research and development of key technologies and equipment of intelligent pharmacy, accelerate the improvement of the research level of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical equipment, and promote the independence and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical equipment.
In addition, TCM scientific research should be guided by the original thinking of TCM, interdisciplinary integration, collaborative innovation, opening up new tracks and cultivating new momentum.
Hot Spots
The combination of traditional Chinese medicine and the concept of general health is an important trend in the development of the current health industry. China's mass health industry has reached the scale of one billion yuan, which can be said to have become a pillar industry. Digital and intelligent technologies have shown broad application prospects not only in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, but also in public health, medical services, rehabilitation and pension, healthy food and other fields. Even in the fields of wine, tea and other industries, they are actively embracing digital technology, relying on the transformation and upgrading of digital intelligence to achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase. It can be said that driven by digital intelligence technology and innovative practice, the big health industry is accelerating the cultivation of new quality productivity and striving to achieve high-quality development.
——Zhang Boli
