The Intelligent Traditional Chinese Medicine robot can achieve an analysis of people through imitating the visual, and listening senses, questioning and conducting palpation examination of people
—Tianjin University has researched and developed an "Internet +" integrated intelligent diagnosis system for the use in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Integrated intelligent diagnosis system of Traditional
Chinese Medicine is performing a palpation examination of a patient
Integrated intelligent diagnosis system of Traditional
Chinese Medicine is performing a tongue and face diagnosis of a patient
The Traditional Chinese Medical Engineering Laboratory (TCMEL) at the School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering of Tianjin University has developed an integrated intelligent diagnosis system for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The system can simulate TCM physicians through imitating the use of visual and listening senses, asking questions and conducting palpation” examinations of people by using modern science and technology. It can issue prescriptions and personally tailor-make health regimen strategies according to a comprehensive analysis by collecting the large data of four TCM diagnoses.
The technology is called an intelligent TCM robot which adopts the concept and technology of internet +, and the TCM diagnostic information can easily be shared with the hospital information system. The system also includes a customised app that people can download on their mobile phones and preliminary activate an “inspection, listening, inquiry, and palpation” examination at anytime and anywhere. The app can provide health warnings and provide advice of professional treatment for the patient through cloud computing based on a huge health database. The advent of this intelligent product will be very useful in improving the technology used in TCM diagnosis and is valuable for personal healthcare.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a practice passed down through many generations of the Chinese people and treasured for thousands of years. It plays an important role in health care, disease prevention, and treatment. The traditional diagnosis methods rely mostly on experienced TCM physicians, whose diagnosis is very subjective and difficult to quantify. TCMEL of Tianjin University targets the core of the Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis method, and after more than 20 years of painstaking research, the laboratory has developed a more objective, accurate, intelligent system which can achieve four diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine using advanced modern science and technology.
The latest edition system consists of a pulse diagnosis system; inspection, listening and inquiry system of TCM; TCM constitution identification system; TCM regimen system and TCM prescription system. In these five systems, pulse diagnosis system collects real-time pulse signals by simulating a TCM physician's compression methods, and the pulse signal can be automatically analyzed to 28 types of TCM pulse conditions based on character extraction and pattern classification. The inspection, listening and inquiry system of TCM is achieved by using the TCM tongue and face imaging instrument, precise sensors and electronic questionnaires to collect objective digital diagnosis information. The TCM constitution identification system can analyze the patient's TCM constitution types, disease prone characters, and adaptability to environmental factors. The TCM regimen system gives out personalized and professional health management suggestions by combining all the information above. Finally, the TCM prescription system can give doctors the suggested prescription for reference based on the computer’s expert system analysis.
In addition to the comprehensive analysis of four TCM diagnosis, the latest edition system has an important breakthrough which uses the "Internet +" concept and technology. The patients' TCM information collected by this system is more objective, standardized and scientific, which can be easily connected with the Hospital Information System (HIS). By combining the information of TCM with western medicine, a doctor can get a better understanding of a patient's disease and give a more accurate treatment.
In order to obtain a better health care at home, the TCMEL of Tianjin University have designed a mobile phone app. The app enables individuals to easily perform the preliminary inspection, listening, inquiry and palpation examination anywhere and at anytime by using the cell phone’s camera, microphone, electronic questionnaires and portable pulse collecting wristband. Through connecting with the expert system and through remote cloud computing, a patient can get a real-time feedback of their personalized health situation, warnings of any illnesses and any TCM regimen. More importantly, the health information of individuals can be collected and saved on the computer’s cloud and is readily available for future diagnosis, which is valuable when a doctor needs to refer to such information.
TCMEL of Tianjin University is one of the earliest research and development teams in China focussing on objective diagnosis methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine and consistently ranks among the very best. Their related key technologies are innovative and have many patents. The laboratory has established a long-term cooperation with Tianjin Traditional Chinese Medicine University and many TCM instrument companies. The TCMEL is internationally focused and the Centre hopes to establish further extensive cooperation with TCM researchers around the world.
