60 - Symposium

The executives from Berne Pharmaceutical watched a video shown to them by their lead researcher, Professor Yuan Yu.

"So is there a good reason why you're showing us this on Spring Festival vacation?" asked one of the executives, Xia Lihou, sitting in his luxury apartment and speaking into his phone.

"I was able to secure the video from a friend of mine at Magic City University Hospital," explained Professor Yuan Yu. "What I am showing you will soon be the talk of the medical world once Spring Festival is over with. You may not be aware, but surgeons require imaging to be able to locate blockage. However, the surgeon in the video was able to locate the exact location of the blockage simply by feeling the pulse."

"Pulse reading?" one of the executives chuckled. "Is he a TCM doctor?"

"This isn't important, but during the short amount of time he was at the hospital, he was able to pinpoint a lot of complications in patients. The hospital was able to verify the locations after performing the angiogram on the patients."

"So he's better than an x-ray machine, but what does that have to do with us?"

Professor Yuan Yu breathed in and out slowly. He hated dealing with non-medical personnel.

"This skill cannot be replicated by another person, but it can be replicated by machine," Professor Yuan Yu's remark woke up a lot of executives.

After New Years break, Li Yun met up with An Luchang to tour the New Medical Technology Symposium on the first day. Chief Zhang had also arrived, but he was already stopped by a couple of doctors who recognized him.

The purpose of most symposiums was to make connections, so Li Yun took An Luchang around the first few stalls near the lobby. Although An Luchang wasn't well versed in small talk, when needed, he could carry on conversations. He asked each representative detailed questions about their products. Most representatives were more than happy to explain.

The Symposium was a place for companies to present new technologies and make pitches to entice new investors. Doctors were the first people they had to convince.

"Our company provides some of the best laparoscopes in the industry," the sales rep said. "The design is ergonomically detailed to allow comfort and maneuverability."

"Now I can see why you asked me about the cardiovascular system," An Luchang ignored the rep and spoke to Li Yun instead. "Can you really see it? The cardiovascular system in your mind?"

"That's about it, pretty awesome skill isn't it?" asked Li Yun.

"Can you really do that just by understanding the pulses?" An Luchang was a bit skeptical.

"Just think about it. Blood follows the complex rules of fluid dynamics, and is also constantly changing according to the environment and emotions. Early doctors have recognized the effects of the environment, and divided them into four types of pulses: wiry, flooding, floating, and stony, each corresponding with the seasons. Changes to the pulses could be fast, slow, slippery, wiry, big, small, rising, or sinking. Just think of the patterns as biological wave functions."

"If you equate it to mathematical waves, it somehow makes more sense than slippery and wiry."

"What's wrong with wiry? It's a good way to explain things, especially 2000 years ago when no one knew about wave function. Wiry explains the pulse from when the temperature changed from cool to warm. It is the type of pulse commonly felt during the spring, it is the tense pulling by the blood to draw in heat. If the wiry pulse feels slower or faster, it is an indication of an illness. If the wiry pulse is felt during the heat of the summer, it is another indication of an illness. It's simple…"

"Ah, maybe I should talk to some of those TCM professors about pulse," a voice chimed in from behind them.

"Chief Zhang!" Li Yun and An Luchang greeted the Chief.

"No need to be polite," Chief Zhang responded, waving off formality. "I think I can speak for everyone when they say that your surgery was an eye opener. It's a shame that this type of skill can't be taught."

Li Yun nodded. Although palpation was taught in school, there wasn't a big emphasis. ECG was much more accurate and thorough.

As they walked through the exhibit floor, there was more and more amazing new technology being proposed and worked on.

"Although it may be exciting, there are also a lot of concerns with new technology, like doctors and surgeons losing certain abilities," Chief Zhang commented as they walked through the exhibit floor. "Like palpation. If you talk to the old timers, they can tell you how they are able to sense an oncoming heart attack simply by listening to the heart. However, imagine a robot that can read ECG and give accurate information and diagnosis. Doctors would simply become technicians to maintain the robots."

"That's only true if the data inputted into the robot is accurate," Li Yun stated.

Chief Zhang nodded. "Many hospitals have been sending data to companies to pool together enough data to begin the process. However, the data is inconsistent. There are too many different illnesses and complications in the human body for them to create an all encompassing diagnosis robot. For now, the best they can do is targeted diagnosis. However, in the future? Who knows?"

Automation may be slow in the medical field, but it had already replaced many existing jobs in other fields.

"Is there also a concern with robots replacing surgeons?" asked An Luchang.

"A bit, but not anytime soon. When laparoscopes were first introduced, a lot of surgeons were against it. Twenty years into the future, some of their concerns are warranted, like the inability of some surgeons to perform open surgeries. However, complications are reduced and patient's health are improving. With robotics, there will be even less opportunity for open surgery."

Li Yun was lucky to have Zuowang to experience open surgery, but for many residents, they did not have the same opportunity.

"It might be better to reserve open surgery to a select few specialist field like hepato-pancreato-biliary (HPB) surgery, organ transplant, and emergency medicine," An Luchang suggested. "This will allow more surgical residents who regularly need to use open surgery to be efficient at it, and for residents who don't, to focus on improving their laparoscopic and robotic skills."

"That's why I like you younger generations. You're not afraid of new technologies, but embrace it as a way of life. Blah, enough about this topic. The reason I am here is to make a purchase deal for the Emergency Department. Originally I was only planning to take you two around to make connections. However, it seems like Dr. Li have already made quite a connection."

"Just a few so far."

"Who gave you the best offer?"

"Probably Berne Inc. 2 million yuan a year."

Chief Zhang snorted. "They are probably taking advantage of you for being a first year resident. If you are able to assist them with inputting data for a diagnostic robot, they should be paying you 2 million in USD."

Even if they did offer him that much, Li Yun would likely turn it down. Although he could use classical pulse analysis to provide data, he couldn't imagine how time consuming it would be to create such a system. If he joined the research team, the technology might speed up a bit, but even without him, a diagnostic robot would become a reality someday.

Maybe it was better to delay the process so that people can adjust. Progress was not always welcomed when it came by too quickly.