Academician Project Goes to the Grassroots | The “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” Demonstration Site Established at Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital

On April 27, the signing and plaque‑presentation ceremony for the demonstration site of the “Academician Project to the Grassroots—Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns Initiative” was successfully held at the Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, marking the official establishment of top‑tier national TCM diagnostic and treatment resources in Chenggu. This initiative will effectively facilitate the distribution of high‑quality TCM services to the grassroots level, ushering in a major breakthrough in the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic and pain‑related conditions at the county level.

More than 150 participants, including Li Yanping, Deputy Director of the Academician Liu Liang Expert Workstation; He Zhiguo, Project Director; Tan Xuefeng, President of Jingyang County Hospital; Gu Tie, Vice President; Xie Shenghong, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Chenggu County Health Commission; Xu Hua, President of Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital; as well as medical colleagues from within and beyond the county, gathered on site to jointly witness this momentous event in the development of traditional Chinese medicine.

In his address, Xu Hua, President of Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, stated that the hospital has been dedicated to the cause of TCM for more than four decades, steadfastly upholding the essence of traditional Chinese medicine and cultivating its distinctive strengths. As a result, it has established a robust framework characterized by prominent TCM specialties and coordinated multidisciplinary development. The successful establishment of this demonstration site for Academician Liu Liang’s expert workstation marks an important milestone in elevating and upgrading the hospital’s specialized services. Moving forward, the hospital will provide comprehensive support to ensure the project’s smooth implementation, deepen the inheritance and innovation of TCM technologies, and fully leverage its role as a model and leader, enabling cutting-edge national-level diagnostic and therapeutic techniques to take root at the grassroots level and benefit the wider public.

Huang Kui, Director of the Acupuncture and Tuina Department at Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, provided a detailed overview of the hospital’s plans for establishing a training base for its three‑pronged sequential therapy for rheumatic and pain conditions, the implementation of demonstration sites under the “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” initiative, and the current status of the department’s specialized development.

He Zhiguo, Project Director of the Academician Liu Liang Expert Workstation, provided an on-site explanation of the core components of the “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” initiative. As a leading expert in the field of rheumatology and immunology in China, Academician Liu Liang spearheaded the development of a three‑component sequential therapy for rheumatic and pain conditions, which was awarded the Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. This approach boasts the advantages of being simple, affordable, reliable, safe, and highly effective, making it particularly well suited for grassroots settings and easily scalable across primary healthcare institutions. The project aims to establish specialized demonstration centers in more than a thousand county-level areas nationwide, extending its reach to empower over ten thousand township‑level primary care facilities and substantially enhance their capacity to deliver traditional Chinese medicine–based diagnosis and treatment.

Li Yanping, deputy director of the workstation, stated that this therapeutic approach integrates transdermal administration, specialized acupuncture techniques, and oral medication in a synergistic treatment regimen. It demonstrates stable clinical efficacy, few adverse reactions, and high safety, and has now been widely adopted by more than 20,000 medical institutions nationwide. Moving forward, the expert team will continue to extend high-quality technical resources to the grassroots level, regularly provide technical guidance and academic support, and comprehensively enhance the quality and efficiency of TCM diagnosis and treatment at the community level in Chenggu County.

Xie Shenghong, a member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Chenggu County Health Commission, extended a warm welcome and heartfelt gratitude to the academician‑expert team for descending to the grassroots level and supporting the development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the county. He pointed out that there is an urgent public demand for medical care related to rheumatic and pain‑related conditions. The establishment of this specialized demonstration site under the Academician‑Expert Workstation represents a crucial step toward addressing the shortcomings of TCM specialties at the county level, strengthening the distinctive TCM brand, and improving the tiered diagnosis and treatment system. He urged the Chenggu County TCM Hospital to seize this opportunity for collaboration, leveraging the academician team’s cutting‑edge technologies, top‑tier talent, and high‑quality platform resources to continuously standardize diagnostic and therapeutic protocols for rheumatic and pain disorders and refine treatment plans. He also emphasized focusing on cultivating specialized personnel, establishing platforms for learning and exchange among primary‑care medical staff, and building a highly competent TCM pain‑management team. At the same time, all medical institutions at every level across the county should take the launch of this project as an impetus to integrate upstream and downstream healthcare resources, pool industry‑wide efforts, and further improve the county‑level tiered TCM diagnosis and treatment system. They should strengthen standardized quality control in specialized fields, comprehensively enhance the county’s TCM service capacity, and effectively meet the public’s needs for convenient, high‑quality medical care close to home.

At the event site, witnessed by all attendees, representatives from both sides signed the Cooperation Agreement on the Academician Project’s Grassroots Outreach and the Demonstration Site Cooperation Agreement for the “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” Initiative, followed by a plaque‑presentation ceremony. This signing and plaque‑awarding marks the official designation of Chenggu County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital as a grassroots demonstration site under Academician Liu Liang’s Expert Workstation for the “Academician Project’s Grassroots Outreach—Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Towns” initiative, with the Rheumatism and Pain Triple‑Sequential Therapy Training Base also established concurrently. As a result, the development of the county‑level rheumatism and pain specialty has entered a new phase.

This initiative not only brings high‑end medical resources to the grassroots level but also presents a crucial opportunity to strengthen specialized capabilities at the community level. Moving forward, the Academician Liu Liang Expert Workstation will continue to promote and apply appropriate traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) techniques, accelerate the training of TCM professionals at the primary care level, and ensure that the academician’s research findings benefit local communities, thereby safeguarding public health with the distinctive strengths of TCM.