Online Chinese medicine guide being developed

Chinese medicine researchers, practitioners and members of the public will have access to one of Australia’s most comprehensive Chinese medicine databases, currently under development at RMIT University.

The database will provide online information about the use of herbal medicine, and World Health Organisation expert Dr Xiao Pin Wang will contribute to the design. Dr Wang, a director in State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China, won a prestigious scholarship to study and work at RMIT for three months.

Dr Wang will work with members of RMIT’s Division of Chinese Medicine at the School of Health Sciences, based in Bundoora, to look at internet-based communication systems in herbal medicine being developed by the university’s Chinese Medicine Research Group and final-year software engineering students from the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, and staff.

She hopes her work at RMIT will translate into a significant improvement in the efficiency of health management in her division in China.

Head of RMIT Chinese Medicine, Associate Professor Charlie Xue, said the database would provide an access point where members of the community, practitioners and researchers could instantly find out information about identification, efficacy and the safety of Chinese herbs commonly used in everyday practice.

“This is the first database in Australia to provide such comprehensive information in a format that is easy to understand, reliable and accurate,” Associate Professor Xue said. “This new site will include all relevant data including that found in the Chinese literature.”

He said the site would be managed in a way that meant only practitioners and researchers could access the more technical information. RMIT students would be able to access the database, with select information being made available to the public.

“The database will be managed through a system that has limited access to the general public, with the more detailed and technical information to be made available to practitioners and researchers,” Associate Professor Xue said.

Associate Professor Xue said that the database would focus on the information available from Chinese literature, the accuracy of those translations, and the question and answer system to ensure that the data provided was of high quality.

For more information, please contact: Associate Professor Charlie Xue +61 (03) 9925 7745