About the Institute
History
The institute started with an office at the second floor of the library (currently New Medical Building), and conducted research at the laboratory located on the 6th floor of Taipei-Veterans General Hospital. The institute moved to the first floor of Nursing Building in June 1994, and again to the current location on the 6th floor of Shouren Building in June 2017, with offices, laboratories, and conference areas.
The Institute of Traditional Medicine is the first and only institute for traditional medicine amongst all the national medical colleges in Taiwan and specializes in education and research on traditional medicine (Chinese Medicine). We introduced a Master’s program in August 1991 and a Doctoral program in 1998.
Professor Julia J. Tsuei was the institute’s first director. Professor Chuang-Ye Hong became the second director in August 1992 and Professor Yi-Tsau Huang the third director in January 1997. Since July 2003, Professor Jen-Hwey Chiu has served as the institute’s fourth director. Since August 2009, Professor Tung-Hu Tsai served as the institute’s fifth director since August 2009, and Professor Shu-Ling Fu served as the institute’s sixth direct since October 2015. Since February 2022, Professor Fang-Pey Chen began serving as the institute’s seventh director.
| First director | Julia J. Tsuei | 1991 – 1992 |
| Second director | Chuang-Ye Hong | 1992 – 1996 |
| Third director | Yi-Tsau Huang | 1997 – 2003 |
| Fourth director | Jen-Hwey Chiu | 2003 – 2009 |
| Fifth director | Tung-Hu Tsai | 2009 – 2015 |
| Sixth director | Shu-Ling Fu | 2015 – 2022 |
| Seventh director | Fang-Pey Chen | 2022 to date |
Founding Aim
- To promote Chinese culture, to break through the bottlenecks in modern medicine, and to cultivate research talent and teachers.
- To follow the trend of global medicine and serve the health of mankind through studying how to combine traditional medicine with modern medicine.
- To standardize, systematize and modernize the diagnostics of traditional medicine by studying and collating traditional pharmacology.
Current Status
The master’s program of our institute usually lasts for two years and requires the completions of 30 credits, including six credits for research thesis. The graduate students enrolled in the master’s class were originally divided into two groups: group A enrolled graduates from the Department of Medicine, the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Department of Dentistry, or graduates of post bachelor’s Traditional Chinese Medicine and post bachelor’s western medicine; In group B, graduates from related departments of medical field (excluding medicine department), pharmaceutical, science, engineering and agriculture colleges were recruited. The grouping was cancelled from 2001. Master’s students are admitted by recommendation and screening or general admission. So far, 19 classes of master’s students have been enrolled, with about 10 students per class. So far, 263 master’s students have graduated.
Current Students and Faculties
Our professors and students are actively engaged in research. Over the past decades, nearly 600 papers have been published in international medical and biological journals; aside from teaching and research, our professors also participate in academic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and academic activities of Traditional Chinese Medicine at home and abroad.
Current Aims
Since its conception, the institute aims to promote the scientization, internationalization, evidence based demonstration, and industrialization of Traditional Chinese Medicine such; the educational goal is to cultivate leaders in research and teaching of traditional medicine including Traditional Chinese Medicine, create an international teaching environment and enhance the international competitiveness of professors and students, combining basic research results with clinical and industry, and practice the concept of translational medicine.
Future Development
Our Institute plans to help NYMU to set up a “Department of Chinese Medicine” in the School of Medicine, teach courses in Traditional Chinese Medicine and traditional medicine, and train TCM scientists. The “National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine” of the Ministry of Health and Welfare is located on the “Traditional Medicine building” of NUCY. Our Institute will work closely with it to engage in the research of Traditional Chinese Medicine and integrated medicine. In addition, our Institute also continues to strengthen the combination of the resources of the University, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei Municipal United Hospital, National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine and the Academia Sinica, hoping to establish a national research center of Traditional Chinese Medicine through the sharing and integration of resources.
