University to launch course in traditional Chinese medicine

What looks set to become the most unusual Masters’ course at the University of Malta could actually produce graduates to cater to a rising global and local demand for traditional Chinese medication. 

That is the view of Prof. Charles Savona Ventura, an experienced obstetrician and director of the university’s new Centre for Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

“More and more patients are seeking assistance in the TCM clinics at Mater Dei and the Corradino prison’s TCM centre,” Savona Ventura told MaltaToday. “The university felt that it was opportune to introduce a postgraduate course in TCM to enable Maltese practitioners gain experience in the fields and thus allow them to apply TCM methods to supplement contemporary medicine.” 

The Masters’ course was announced earlier this year, as part of a collaboration between the University of Malta and the Shanghai University for Traditional Chinese Medicine – recently ranked by a research team as the 27th best medical school in China. As part of the agreement, Chinese lecturers from Shanghai University will open a TCM clinic at the Tal-Qroqq clinic. 

Seven students, all of them Maltese, have so far applied to join this one-year course. Starting from October, the accepted students will be tutored in acupuncture and moxibustion – the therapeutic practice of applying the burned mugwort herb on a patient’s skin. 

They will also be instructed in the philosophy of TCM – the belief that the human body is intrinsically related to its surrounding environment, and that diseases are a result of disharmony between the body and the environment. 

Despite the lack of scientific evidence to back up TCM, the university will only consider students with a background in healthcare for the course.

“This way, professionals will be able to use TCM methods to supplement mainline medicine, rather than use it as a stand-alone alternative,” Savona Ventura explained. “Nobody should in any way resort to TCM waylaying mainstream medicine.” 

Exposing medical professionals to TCM could also encourage research into whether the millennia-old therapy has a physiological basis or simply works as a placebo. 

“The stimulation of nerve endings in the periphery will set up a series of chemical changes that eventually reach the brain, so there may be a valid scientific reason for TCM action,” Savona Ventura explained. 

Until that time though, the professor encourages TCM as a supplementary treatment for pain relief. 

“There are situations where contemporary mainstream medicines cannot fully satisfy the patient in need, possibly because of the dose-restrictions of analgesic drugs due to side effects,” he said. “There is no doubt that observational experience suggests that TCM does help manage some conditions, especially those related to pain relief.”