Developing a new gastroenterology with distinct Chinese features

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In the golden autumn, the season of harvest in China, the English Edition of the China National Journal of New Gastroenterology is coming out for expectant readers and authors at home and abroad. As a sister volume of the Chinese Edition of the Chinese Journal of New Gastroenterology, which is monthly, the English Quarterly has been approved by the Science and Technology Commission of the People’s Republic of China and the State Information and Publication Bureau, and registered at the Shanxi Provincial. This will be a unique academic journal in the field, distributed throughout the world for the purpose of an multi-angular interchange of views and multidisciplinary infiltration. The publication of the English edition will, of course, not only open up a new means of making academic contacts for gastroenterologists of all circles, but also play an active role in strengthening international cooperation and promoting our specialty.

What is meant by new gastroenterology? And how should we characterize it?

In recent years, with the wide application of gastrointestinal endoscopy and the extensive study of related subfields such as digestive immunology, oncology, microcirculation, rheology, etc., the diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases have risen to a much higher level than ever before. This is one aspect of the matter. However, we still have much to learn. As far as traditional Chinese medicine is concerned, there has been a complete systematic theory on gastrointestinal disorders called “Treatise on the Spleen and Stomach”, which combines all-round theoretical expounding and abundant clinical experience from “The Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic” until the famous physicians’ works of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Therefore, as history advances, it is a necessary duty of the gastroenterologists of the country to merge modern medicine and traditional Chinese medicine into an organic whole so that a new gastroenterology with distinct Chinese features is gradually established. In this regard, Dr. Bei-Hai Wei made a thorough and accurate explanation when he put forward the characteristics of the new gastroenterology. In theoretical studies, there should be a number of glittering junctures to integrate Western and traditional Chinese medicine into one in which the new arguments and new findings should resemble neither the former nor the latter. In clinical diagnosis, a new integrated mode of diagnosis should be set up by uniting the identification of diseases with the overall analysis of illness, the patient’s conditions, macro- and micro-observations, and the determination of cause, location, quality and quantity. In clinical treatment, an efficacy superior to that of Western or traditional Chinese medicine alone should stand repeated tests and open up the mechanisms of efficacy. An overall system of new gastroenterology is formed on the basis of a combination of medicine, physiotherapy, medication and nursing.

By keeping up with the rapid development of medical science, gastroenterology in our country has improved a great deal in the past few decades. This progress is reflected in an ever-growing number of specialists and several journals of our own, such as the Chinese Journal of New Gastroenterology, China National Journal of New Gastroenterology and Chinese Journal of Clinical Hepatology. However, language barriers are limiting our international exchanges. For this reason it is essential to increase mutual understanding among our colleagues throughout the world and to strive to raise our academic level. This is where the aim and purpose of the new journal lies. We are fortunate that our chief consultants include five academicians, two of whom are members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: Prof. Ke-Ji Chen and Prof. Meng-Chao Wu. The other three academicians are members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: the late Prof. Shao-Ji Jiang, Prof. Jian-Yu Tang and Prof. Jian-Hua Dong.

It is sincerely hoped that all of our colleagues in different countries who are concerned with and back up the English edition of the Journal will generously contribute articles and give us your advice regularly. The main sections of the Journal include: Prospects for the 21^st Century, Comments on Basic Researches, Clinical Studies, Reviews, Case Reports, and Symposium Summaries. Contributions of an advanced international level and with national features of different countries worthy of interchanges across the world are warmly welcomed.