Persian Medicine (PM) uses wrist temperature/humidity and pulse to determine a person's health status and temperament. However, the diagnosis may depend on the physician's interpretation, hindering the combination of PM with modern medical methods. This study proposes a system for measuring pulse signals and temperament detection based on PM. The system uses recorded thermal distribution, a temperament questionnaire, and a customized pulse measurement device. The collected data can be sent to a physician via a telecare system for interpretation and prescription of medications. The system was clinically implemented for patient care, assessed the temperaments of 34 participants, and recorded thermal images of the wrist, back of the hand, and entire face. The study suggests that a customized device for measuring pulse waves and other criteria based on PM can be incorporated into a telemedicine system, reducing the dependency on PM specialists for diagnosis.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a natural, safe, and effective therapy that has spread and been applied worldwide. The unique TCM diagnosis and treatment system requires a comprehensive analysis of a patient's symptoms hidden in the clinical record written in free text. Prior studies have shown that this system can be informationized and intelligentized with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, such as natural language processing (NLP). However, existing datasets are not of sufficient quality nor quantity to support the further development of data-driven AI technology in TCM. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on the core task of the TCM diagnosis and treatment system -- syndrome differentiation (SD) -- and we introduce the first public large-scale dataset for SD, called TCM-SD. Our dataset contains 54,152 real-world clinical records covering 148 syndromes. Furthermore, we collect a large-scale unlabelled textual corpus in the field of TCM and propose a domain-specific pre-trained language model, called ZY-BERT. We conducted experiments using deep neural networks to establish a strong performance baseline, reveal various challenges in SD, and prove the potential of domain-specific pre-trained language model. Our study and analysis reveal opportunities for incorporating computer science and linguistics knowledge to explore the empirical validity of TCM theories.

SHANGHAI – A crowd gathers at a Shanghai hospital, queuing for remedies made with plant mixtures and animal parts including scorpions and freeze-dried millipedes -- medicines that China hopes will find an audience overseas. With a history going back 2,400 years, traditional Chinese medicine is deeply rooted in the country and remains popular despite access to Western pharmaceuticals. Now the authorities are hoping to modernize and export the remedies, but they face major obstacles. Some leave with boxes of pills, others take away plastic sachets filled with herbal extracts. Lin Hongguo, a 76-year-old pensioner, has bought herbal remedies that he will boil to make a tea to treat his "slow beating heart."