Hong Kong Baptist University and Elsevier Report Highlights Global Expansion of Chinese Medicine Research, Urges Standardised Frameworks for Broader Integration

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Media OutReach Newswire - 18 June 2025 – The report 'Evolving Legacy: Decoding the Scientific Trajectory of Chinese Medicine' released today by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and Elsevier, reveals the growing impact of Chinese Medicine research on global healthcare and modern health challenges. In this context, 'Chinese Medicine research' encompasses not only clinical practice, but also basic and translational science, AI-driven systems medicine, and the network pharmacology of herbal formulas. This first bibliometric analysis of Chinese Medicine research from 2014 to 2023 highlights the field's rapid growth, interdisciplinarity, and societal impact on Digital Health and Systems Medicine.
HKBU and Elsevier launched a new report 'Evolving Legacy: Decoding the Scientific Trajectory of Chinese Medicine', highlighting the growing global impact of Chinese Medicine research in diversified healthcare solutions.
Key findings from the report include:
Bridging a global integration gap
Chinese Medicine's mainstream integration lacks a global, transparent, evidence-based framework. To elevate its scientific profile, key strategies include developing internationally accepted clinical guidelines through expert consensus, enhancing trial reporting standards to improve research quality, and fostering interdisciplinary, cross-regional collaboration to drive innovation and systemic impact.
''Evolving Legacy' demonstrates how Chinese Medicine research has matured into a global, evidence-informed field,' said Professor Lyu Aiping, Vice-President (Research & Development), HKBU, and a leading expert in Chinese Medicine. 'We envision a future where data science and AI illuminate what Chinese Medicine research has long intimated, providing deeper insights into health classifications and compound interventions. The next frontier is using Chinese Medicine research to uncover insights possibly overlooked in Digital Health and Systems Medicine, strengthening their scientific foundation and impact.'
'This report offers unprecedented insights into Chinese Medicine's evolving scientific landscape,' added Basak Candemir, Business Development Director, Analytical and Data Services, Elsevier. 'It illuminates the growing global impact of Chinese Medicine research and its role in diversified healthcare solutions, making a vital step towards bridging traditional knowledge with modern validation for the benefit of global health.'
The report was developed using Elsevier's bibliometric tools, Scopus and SciVal, based on a comprehensive dataset and case studies compiled in collaboration with HKBU Chinese Medicine research experts. The report can be accessed on https://cm-evaluation.scm.hkbu.edu.hk/.
Hashtag: #HKBU
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:00:03 What you're about to hear is a story of history in the making. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:00:20 A medical first, a story of survival, bravery, and heroism. I'm not a hero. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:00:29 To try and solve a crisis. Taking the clamp off the artery. Nice and pink, yeah. You see, at any given moment, more than 100,000 people are waiting. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:00:56 And every day 17 people sadly will die. Speaker 2 00:01:00 For any organ that you name. Only 10% make it on the list. There's just not enough of. There's not enough. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:01:06 Now, the potential answer to this problem might sound crazy to many. Speaker 7 00:01:10 I have received a major, major, groundbreaking organ transplant. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:01:19 Controversial to some Speaker 7 00:01:21 for that animal. This is a life of deprivation. It's an early death. It is much suffering. I don't think that's ever okay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:01:28 Even blasphemous to others. 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Tim Andrews 00:08:40 I mean, I was told, literally told, you have dialysis or you pick a box. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:08:50 It was a false choice, certain death or dialysis, meaning being dependent on a machine for the rest of his life. Tim Andrews 00:08:59 The first couple of months was like, hey, this is not gonna be so bad. As time went on, like six months in, I had a heart attack. It takes a toll on you emotionally and physically. Tim Andrews 00:09:29 This is where I get to sit. Without it, six weeks, eight weeks later, I'd be dead. It's a necessary evil. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:09:37 Necessary at least until he could get a kidney transplant. But again, just as with Montgomery, he knew that could take a while, might never happen, and the clock was ticking. I was ready to die in this chair. And that is when he learned about another option, brand new, still relatively untested. Speaker 11 00:09:58 Some people said, there's not enough information. Don't do this yet. Don't this yet." Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:10:09 You can't really tell by looking at them, but these tiny piglets have been genetically engineered to make their organs more acceptable for transplantation into humans. It's something known as xenotransplantation. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:10:22 So Mike, how unusual is it for us to even be here? Mike Curtis 00:10:25 This is very unusual. We usually try to limit this to only the staff that takes care of the animals. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:10:31 Mike Curtis is the CEO of biotech company eGenesis. Never before has he let cameras onto this very special pig farm. Mike Curtis 00:10:40 Everything's controlled, like all of the feed is clean, water's clean, the staff is clean. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:10:45 And I should just point out that I walked into a room, turned on a filter, essentially cleaned the air for five minutes before I could then go shower. That's why my hair is wet. I put on everything new here, including underwear, socks, shoes. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:10:59 The goal is to protect the pigs from us. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:11:14 You know, I got to tell you, I did not know what to expect, but it's powerful just to be here with these pigs. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:11:23 After all, these pigs are among the most genetically modified mammals on the planet. Mike Curtis 00:11:29 These piglets carry a total of 69 edits to the genome. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:11:34 Alterations to their DNA. Mike Curtis 00:11:37 We're trying to reduce the risk of disease transmission from the porcine donor to human, we're editing in a way that reduces or eliminates hypercute rejection, and then we add human regulatory trans genes to control rejection. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:11:50 'To do that, scientists take the unedited pig cells and use a gene editing tool called CRISPR. They add special CRISPR fluids to the cells, which splices out certain genes and adds other genes. You can't really see anything with the naked eye and it takes only seconds, but what is happening in this vial is truly remarkable. Let me take a second and explain. First of all, remember that all DNA is made up of four chemical bases, A, C, G and T. Think of that as your genetic blueprint. Now, a pig's DNA and a human's DNA, they actually look pretty similar, but there are some important differences. For example, the GGTA1 gene that is responsible for a carbohydrate that forms around a pig cell known as alpha-gal. Now if you put that into a human, it would cause almost instantaneous rejection. But by knocking out that specific sequence and then adding in others. Scientists can make the pig's organs much more compatible for humans. Mike Curtis 00:12:55 So in the freezer are all these cells that we've edited. We thaw that vial, we grow those cells, and then we take the nucleus from that edited cell and we transfer it. It's akin to what was done with Dolly back in the 90s, cloning. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:13:09 'And that is the process by which they have created a modern-day assembly line of genetically modified pigs. Mike Curtis 00:13:17 We've selected the Yucatan Mini Pig because fully grown, they're about 70 kilos, 150 pounds. Right, so the organs are correctly sized for a human recipient. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:13:27 Ultimately, you've got to get the size right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:13:31 Now, if the idea of using animals for human transplants sounds familiar to you, it's because the concept has been around for a long time. There have been at least 48 cases reported in the medical literature since the 1900s. You may remember one of the most famous. Robert Montgomery 00:13:46 This is Baby Faye. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:13:47 Little baby Faye in 1984. She had a baboon heart that kept her alive for 20 days. But there was always the stubborn issue of rejection. And so for a long time, xenotransplants faded into the background. Robert Montgomery 00:14:01 I think we've turned up the throttle significantly. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:14:05 What's led to that? Robert Montgomery 00:14:06 What we did is transplanted one of these organs into someone who had wanted to donate their organs was brain dead. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:14:14 'You heard that right. The first human patients to receive the gene-edited pig kidneys were brain dead. Why? In order to move the field forward without moving too fast. First, the scientists just wanted to prove that pig organs could survive in a human body. Dr. Robert Montgomery performed that operation on Maurice Miller, who was brain dead Robert Montgomery 00:14:39 We took the clamps off to let the blood go into the organ and it turned this beautiful pink color and started to make urine immediately. Robert Montgomery 00:14:48 Pretty looking kidney. Robert Montgomery 00:14:49 'That was mind-blowing. So it looks a lot like a human kidney. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:14:54 In fact, when I first met Dr. Montgomery a few years ago, he was reviewing Maurice Miller's kidney biopsy. Here's what they learned. About a month into the transplant, the pig kidney did begin to show signs of rejection. Robert Montgomery 00:15:08 See that red? Yes. That's hemorrhage. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:15:11 'But importantly, standard anti-rejection drugs did work. And the kidney function is okay? Robert Montgomery 00:15:18 It's back to normal. Robert Montgomery 00:15:20 It gave, I think, the FDA some confidence that this was going to work in humans. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:15:27 'With all that research in the background, in 2022, the University of Maryland School of Medicine announced the first xenotransplant into a living recipient, someone who is not brain dead. It would be a pig heart into 57-year-old David Bennett. Give me a high five, buddy. That was awesome. David Ayers 00:15:46 We saw two months survival of that patient and now incrementally seeing longer and longer survival in these compassionate use patients. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:15:55 David Ayers is a giant of a man. Seeing him on this farm in Blacksburg, Virginia, you may not know that he is also considered one of the most widely regarded geneticists in the world. David Ayers 00:16:06 We have about 300 research animals here. We grow the designated pathogen free pigs that were ultimately used for the decedent studies, as well as the patients that have received our organs for transplant, both hearts and kidneys. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:16:23 He's taking me to meet some of the farm's newest arrivals. David Ayers 00:16:28 Watch your head, maybe that's just me. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:16:34 There's a lot of piglets David Ayers 00:16:37 Do you want to hold one? Yeah, sure. So these are ten gene Clone Piglets. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:16:44 Here at United Therapeutics, they perform 10 gene edits on their pigs. Now remember, eGenesis in Wisconsin perform more than 60. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:16:57 If you're doing 6 times as many edits does that make it much better? David Ayers 00:16:58 I don't think more edits is necessarily better or worse. The additional 50 edits that eGenesis has done are to inactivate an endogenous pig virus. We've actually addressed that by breeding. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:17:12 In 2024, the first pig kidney transplant was announced. Speaker 14 00:17:16 My name is Dr. Leo Riella. I'm medical director of the kidney transplant program Mass General. Today, we announce the successful gene added to pay kidney transplant into a living human. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:17:28 Tim Andrews, still on dialysis, was watching all of this unfold. Tim Andrews 00:17:34 I'm like, oh, they're doing it at Mass General. And I was like, I have to be part of this. I'm not gonna make it, but I'll make it to this. And I'll tell you right up front, if it's one day and you learn something, thank God. Dr. Riella 00:17:50 His eyes really sparked up and he said, tell me what I need to do. Speaker 11 00:17:56 And they said, prepare your body for battle, because it's gonna be a battle. He had to do dental work, he had to go to physical therapy. We signed up for the gym. When he came back to see Dr. Riella, he had lost 22 pounds. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:18:13 Did you have any doubts along the way? Tim Andrews 00:18:16 You know, there's always doubt with it, but I'm like, this is my chance to do something. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:18:23 You're going to be in medical history books forever. Tim Andrews 00:18:27 Kids are going to be taught how to do it, watching me have one put in me. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:18:33 They'll know your name. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:18:38 It's a crisp January morning back at the Egenesis Pig Farm in Wisconsin. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:18:44 It's been more than a year since our first visit. Speaker 3 00:18:47 This is many years in the making. So Raphael, she'll be able to donate one of her kidneys to a man who's in dire need. And essentially, she's saving his life. Speaker 15 00:18:59 Go, Raphael! It's a really big moment. There's a lot of emotions. We love our piglets like our own. Thinking about the purpose that Raphael is serving, like getting to go and give someone a new lease on life is just such a gift. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:19:18 That someone is Tim Andrews. Raphael will be his donor. Tim Andrews 00:19:25 What a gift. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:19:30 'As Rafael departs for the 17-hour trip to Boston, Tim settles in at Mass General. Tim Andrews 00:19:37 I knew I was in great hands, these guys are just so good. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:19:42 Were you nervous the morning of? Dr. Riella 00:19:45 And we'll see you on the other side, getting ready. As a new man. We're all anxious and nervous about going through a procedure that has not been done before. And having that reassurance from him also brings a lot of positivity to the entire team. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:20:02 It's early morning, January 25th, when Dr. Riella and the surgical team travel about 50 miles outside of Boston to meet Rafael. Dr. Riella 00:20:11 It was an OR, very similar to what we see in the hospital, and the surgery to retrieve the organs occur there. They look very similar to how we do procurements. I think uniqueness is really that, who was a donor, who was coming, yeah, it was a pig. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:20:29 It's go time! Speaker 11 00:20:30 It's a dance to get the pig kidney there and get him in the operating room. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:20:37 They gotta coordinate it. Speaker 11 00:20:37 So a nurse came and said, okay, good to go. I'm like, wait, wait. We haven't said goodbye. You can't say goodbye. Oh, yes, I can. So, I actually made them wait and they said, we've got to go, I'm saying goodbye to my husband before he leaves for surgery and he may not come back. Speaker 17 00:21:00 It's a little chilly in here, okay, Tim? Tim Andrews 00:21:01 I like cold. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:21:02 The operation lasts a little over two hours, around the same as a traditional transplant, and the big kidney. It looks, feels, and functions very much like a human kidney. And here is when surgeons connect the pig kidney to Tim's artery and vein. After that, the moment of truth. Surgeons release the clamp so blood can flow into the kidneys and the organ turns pink. And now this, urine, successfully flowing through the kidneys. Dr. Riella 00:21:36 Wow, look at that. We were very surprised. We were hoping that we would start making urine within a day or two, but seeing the urine being produced right away was not what at least I expected to be happening that close. Everything went well. Speaker 11 00:21:53 They said, they put the kidney on the table and started connecting him to the kidney and he actually peed across the room. So they were very, very excited. Of course, I started bawling like a baby. We were all crying. I mean, we were all. oh my goodness, I mean, this is not the end, but we're getting there, we're getting there. Tim Andrews 00:22:19 'I felt great and all of a sudden I had energy and I was like, this is beyond what I thought I was going to get. So right away you felt that coming? Right away I felt that. I was, like, look at me, I'm a new man, it was like a new birth, I said, I have a new birthday, 125-25 is my new birthday. Because I was alive and I hadn't been for a long time and I'm like, this is amazing. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:22:57 But there was still a long way to go. This is still so experimental after all. And Tim and Karen knew how quickly things could change. It was just a year earlier that Lisa Passano also needed a kidney. Her daughter, Brittany Rydell, remembers just how sick her mother was. Brittany Rydell 00:23:17 It means no more dialysis, hopefully. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:23:20 'Like Tim, she was an end-stage kidney disease, but Lisa's heart was also failing. And that is why a traditional kidney transplant was not an option for her. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:23:30 She was too sick. Brittany Rydell 00:23:32 Yeah, absolutely. Robert Montgomery 00:23:34 Lisa Passano was on death's door. I mean, she was not gonna live. You know, days to weeks from dying. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:23:44 So Dr. Montgomery, who was her surgeon, suggested a pig kidney. Robert Montgomery 00:23:48 But there are some people who are willing to take that chance, and she was one of them. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:23:54 'In the spring of 2024, Lisa Pisano became one of the first two patients in the world to receive a gene-edited pig kidney transplant. Brittany Rydell 00:24:02 I got more energy. I feel energized. After her kidney transplant, I have to say she looked the best that she looked in so I've seen her so happy. It was definitely the healthiest I had seen her in a while. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:24:15 She was doing well at that point. Brittany Rydell 00:24:17 Yeah, we were so hopeful, because I had seen her so much better, and I figured if anything was going to go wrong, it would have went wrong at that moment, and not months later. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:24:28 Pesano developed several infections and never recovered enough to leave the hospital. Brittany Rydell 00:24:33 I don't have regrets about the surgery, I just wish that she could have had the opportunity to really enjoy it more. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:24:40 I know it's probably hard to sort of think of it this way, but she was a real pioneer. Brittany Rydell 00:24:45 One of the first things she said to me was even if this doesn't work for me, it can work for someone else. And I think about that a lot. Robert Montgomery 00:24:52 The first patient that we did was in this bed, in the bed that I was in, Lisa Passano. You know, taking care of that one life. And if they were just that, that would be great, but then you have this opportunity to really impact maybe thousands, maybe millions of lives. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:25:11 Now Tim knew Lisa's story. He knew that there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Tim Andrews 00:25:17 Stepping forward, you're gonna do something for humanity. This is a way that we can bring this forward. And this is the hope for all these people that it's gonna be okay. We're gonna find a way, which is amazing to me. It was just, I have to be part of this. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:25:40 So would this be a success for Tim, and what does it all mean for the 100,000 people currently waiting? Tim Andrews 00:25:47 There's bumps in the road. Dr. Sanjay Gupta 00:25:48 We'll dive into that when we come back next week with part two of Animal Farm. Thanks for listening.

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• Medscape

AI Enhances Prostate Cancer Detection in MRI Analysis

TOPLINE: In a large-scale diagnostic study, artificial intelligence (AI) assistance led to a superior improvement in prostate cancer detection on MRI, increasing diagnostic accuracy by 3.3% compared with unassisted readings. AI support enhanced both sensitivity (96.8%) and specificity (50.1%) at detecting clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa). METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a diagnostic observer study in which 61 readers (34 experts and 27 non-experts) across 17 countries assessed 360 MRI examinations of men with prostate cancer (n = 360; median age, 65 years) with and without AI assistance. The AI system used in this study was curated and developed within the international Prostate Imaging-Cancer AI (PI-CAI) Consortium for the detection and diagnosis of csPCa. The primary objective was to assess whether AI-assisted csPCa diagnosis was superior to unassisted diagnosis at the patient level using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), sensitivity, and specificity at a Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System threshold of 3 or more. TAKEAWAY: Among 360 men who were examined, 122 harboured csPCa. The AUROC was 0.916 with AI assistance vs 0.882 without, showing an improvement of 3.3% (P < .001). The sensitivity was 96.8% for AI-assisted assessments vs 94.3% for unassisted assessments, showing a significant improvement of 2.5% (P < .001). Likewise, the specificity was 50.1% for AI-assisted vs 46.7% for unassisted assessments, showing an improvement of 3.4%. Non-expert readers showed greater performance improvement with AI assistance than expert readers, achieving higher AUROC scores than those of unassisted experts. IN PRACTICE: "The findings of this diagnostic study suggest the potential of AI assistance in improving csPCa diagnosis when compared with unassisted assessments of biparametric MRI, with statistically significant improvements observed across AUROC, sensitivity, and specificity at a PI-RADS [Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System] score of 3 or more. Notably, nonexpert readers demonstrated higher benefits from AI assistance compared with expert readers," the authors wrote. SOURCE: This study was led by Jasper J. Twilt, MSc, Minimally Invasive Image-Guided Intervention Center, Department of Medical Imaging, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It was published online on June 13, 2025, in JAMA Network Open. LIMITATIONS: The data included were retrospectively curated within the scope of PI-CAI, resulting in a mix of consecutive and sampled cohorts. The study's generalisability requires further validation across external cohorts with varying disease prevalence, image quality, and other clinical factors. The controlled online reading workstation environment differed from readers' native settings, potentially affecting diagnostic performance. This study did not assess workflow efficiency or the clinical applicability of performance improvements in real clinical settings. DISCLOSURES: This study received funding support from Health-Holland and the European Union's Horizon 2020. Several authors reported receiving personal fees and research funding and having other ties with various sources. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.