Academician Project Goes to the Grassroots | The “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” Initiative’s Demonstration Site Established at Gaozhou City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital

On April 25, the signing ceremony and unveiling of the “Academician Project to the Grassroots—Demonstration Site for the ‘Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns’ Initiative” at Academician Liu Liang’s Expert Workstation was successfully held at the Gaozhou City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. This event marks the official introduction of high-quality technical resources from a national-level academician team to Gaozhou, injecting strong momentum into the enhancement of regional capabilities in the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic and pain-related conditions.

Lai Jianbo, Party Secretary and Director of the Gaozhou Municipal Health Commission, along with Wu Renhong, Party Secretary of the Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital; Jiang Hongliang, the hospital’s president; members of the hospital’s leadership team; heads of relevant departments; and expert representatives, as well as Professor Li Yanping, Deputy Director of Academician Liu Liang’s Expert Workstation, Project Consultant Wu Tianhao, and Project Promotion Director He Zhiguo, all attended the event. The ceremony was chaired by President Jiang Hongliang.

Wu Renhong, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, first extended a warm welcome on behalf of all hospital staff and cadres to the distinguished leaders and experts in attendance, and then provided a comprehensive report on the hospital’s development and construction. He noted that in recent years, the hospital has continuously strengthened its discipline-building efforts and talent cultivation, steadily enhancing its capacity to deliver TCM services, thereby laying a solid foundation for implementing academician‑led projects at the grassroots level.

Subsequently, Director Qin Huanyi of the Tuina and Rehabilitation Department at the Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital delivered a special report on the operational status of the “Rheumatism and Pain Triple‑Sequential Therapy Training Base” and the “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns Demonstration Sites.” He systematically outlined the achievements in base development, covering standardized technical instruction, routine hands‑on mentorship, and rotational training and support for primary‑care physicians, while highlighting the therapy’s clinical promotion and application. As a pioneering TCM‑appropriate technique in China, this therapy has been awarded the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award and boasts notable advantages such as being green and safe, delivering stable therapeutic outcomes, and being well suited to grassroots clinical settings. Through the demonstration sites’ patient‑centered initiatives—ranging from technology transfer to lower‑level facilities, coordinated two‑way referrals, standardized screening for chronic pain conditions, and home‑based rehabilitation guidance—the approach has already brought tangible benefits to large numbers of people at the community level.

Signing and unveiling mark a new chapter, as the academician‑led project takes root in Gaozhou.

He Zhiguo, Director of Project Promotion at the Academician Liu Liang Expert Workstation, provided a detailed overview of the plan’s overall progress. He emphasized that the initiative, centered on the workstations, aims to establish 1,000 demonstration sites and extend its reach to 10,000 townships, thereby comprehensively enhancing primary‑level capabilities in the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic diseases and pain. As a key practical training base in western Guangdong, Gaozhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital possesses robust capacity for training and mentorship, which will significantly bolster the development of county‑level medical consortiums.

At the signing ceremony, Director He Zhiguo and Secretary Wu Renhong jointly signed the cooperation agreement for the “Academician Project to the Grassroots—Demonstration Site of the ‘Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns’ Initiative”; Professor Li Yanping and Director Lai Jianbo signed the cooperation agreement for the Academician Project’s grassroots outreach.

Subsequently, Professor Li Yanping, Director Lai Jianbo, Secretary Wu Renhong, Dean Jiang Hongliang, and other leaders jointly unveiled the plaque for the “Academician Project to the Grassroots—Demonstration Site of the ‘Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Townships’ Initiative,” drawing enthusiastic applause from the audience.

In his address, Professor Li Yanping emphasized that this collaboration goes beyond the signing of agreements and the presentation of plaques; it represents a vivid demonstration of leveraging science and technology to empower grassroots healthcare and make advanced medical innovations accessible to the general public. Academician Liu Liang’s team has long been dedicated to the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine, and their “Three-Pronged Sequential Therapy for Rheumatism and Pain” has, through the concerted efforts of more than 200 training centers and over 600 experts, reached over 20,000 medical institutions nationwide. He expressed the hope that Gaozhou City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital will seize the opportunity presented by the establishment of this demonstration site to further strengthen its talent-development system, expand the reach of its high-quality technologies, and ensure that the outcomes of the academician’s project truly benefit the people.

Following the unveiling ceremony, the attending experts and leaders proceeded to the Southern Branch of Gaozhou City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital—the demonstration site for the “Academicians’ Projects to the Grassroots—Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns Initiative” in western Guangdong—for on-site guidance. The experts inspected the setup of the specialized clinical treatment area, the mentorship procedures, and patient‑use practices, offering high praise for the hospital’s preliminary efforts and putting forward valuable recommendations on the next steps, including the broader dissemination of advanced techniques and the refinement of the training system.
 

This event has facilitated the precise alignment of high-end medical resources, empowering grassroots TCM professionals. Moving forward, the Academician Liu Liang Expert Workstation will continue to promote and apply appropriate TCM technologies, accelerate the training of TCM specialists at the community level, ensure that the academician’s research findings benefit local residents, and leverage the distinctive strengths of TCM to safeguard public health.