This Doctor Is Too Wealthy

That was the progress of acupuncture—extremely slow. One could even say the problem was significant, something Du Heng had never anticipated.

Each acupuncture session, beyond accurately locating the acupoints, involved selecting the right acupoints, which was also an essential part.

And these acupoints were chosen following the rules of meridian circulation.

However, all the doctors assigned to him were from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Internal Medicine Department. They were very familiar with the meridians in internal medicine, such as how the liver meridian and gallbladder meridian flowed, with no confusion at all.

The problem was that the meridians related to acupoints and those related to the viscera in internal medicine were actually two separate systems.

The meridians in internal medicine focused on syndrome differentiation and medication, while the meridians of acupoints focused on Qi and blood flow. They had similarities and interconnections, but the differences were also significant.

So, Du Heng could now basically let these doctors handle syndrome differentiation and medication without oversight, but he could not relax when it came to acupuncture points.

And after such a long period of contact, Du Heng also discovered another problem: among these young doctors, with very few exceptions, most of them did not take acupuncture very seriously, thinking it was not of significant use.

A few individuals even thought that acupuncture had no scientific basis, did not conform to anatomy, and was more of a psychological effect than an actual skill.

At this idea, Du Heng was genuinely taken aback. He didn’t understand why these TCM practitioners believed in the efficacy of traditional chinese medicine and the syndrome differentiation of internal medicine but didn’t believe in acupuncture.

Isn’t that contradictory?

After understanding the situation for a longer time, Du Heng found that it wasn’t contradictory at all.

The TCM practitioners who held these ideas were practicing syndrome differentiation based on the fundamental concepts of modern medicine.

In other words, these people were intelligent and knowledgeable. They essentially put on a traditional Chinese medicine veneer while practicing modern medicine. And if you weren’t a specialist, you wouldn’t notice anything amiss.

The consequences of doing so, in Du Heng’s view, were also very clear.

As long as they understood the characteristics of a disease and the treatment methods, their treatment would be excellent.

But as soon as they encountered something they had never seen or were unfamiliar with, they were immediately stymied, and the result of their syndrome differentiation was often specious.

However, this kind of behavior, for Du Heng and the stroke team at that point, was very suitable.

What the stroke team needed then was to establish a standardized, replicable treatment approach and method. Therefore, Du Heng did not excessively intervene or attempt to correct the thinking of these doctors under the circumstances.

Moreover, Du Heng specifically found three professional acupuncturists to work with them on stroke rehabilitation therapy.

Remarkably, separating internal medicine and acupuncture in this way yielded excellent results.

It truly validated what his brother-in-law had said: professional matters should be left to professionals.

In the increasingly specialized medical industry of today, being a generalist no longer met market demands.

Nearly two months passed in a flurry of busy and fulfilling work. Then, on the day before Christmas, Du Heng suddenly received an entirely unexpected phone call.

The content of the call concerned a matter he had almost forgotten.

It was news about Mr. Ren, who had vanished two months prior. This news was something Du Heng could never have anticipated.