Chapter 1643: The Development of Medicine

The only one preparing to return to Huaxia was Yuzhu, who was a doctor; he was not originally considered part of the leadership, but merely a doctor sent down to the grassroots level according to custom. Now that his term of service had expired, he could have continued to stay with the Western Development Group, as the Western Development Group would welcome a major development in the coming years, and a proper hospital would be built by then.

Someone like Yuzhu, who had made great contributions to the Western Development Group, could certainly have obtained a position like a director, but he was unwilling.

The main reason was that in such a remote and desolate place, and with him being the only doctor, it was extremely difficult to improve his medical skills; one could even say there was little possibility of it.

At this time, there were not many medical books; there was only a set of medical books compiled by Baifeng, which were very concise and more like study notes.

When these doctors graduated, they had already studied the books until they were worn out. Just by reading books, one could no longer learn more things. To improve medical skills, one had to go to Huaxia City, to large hospitals where there were more cases and more experienced doctors, and improve one's own level by learning from them.

As for more and better medical books, that would require more doctors to constantly summarize their findings through continuous practice, and then compile books that could advance the field.

History was just like this; the earliest medical book was the Classic of Difficult Issues, and before that, medical knowledge was mainly passed down by word of mouth. Later, a group of people summarized the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, attributed to Huangdi, which finally completely established the basic theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Subsequent medical books were all perfected and developed on the basis of the Inner Canon.

Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases determined the rules for prescription composition, providing a template for later medical practitioners. Further on, many different schools appeared according to the changes of the era, such as the Earth-Supplementing School, the Yin-Nourishing School, and so on; all were sets of theories summarized after their long-term clinical practice.

Looking at dialectics, what Baifeng taught them was only Viscera Differentiation, Yin-Yang Differentiation, and Deficiency-Excess Differentiation, but there were also Eight Principles Differentiation and Nutritive-Defensive Qi-Blood Differentiation. However, Baifeng felt that in this era, the most suitable one was the Six Channels Differentiation, because it used few prescriptions, few medicines, and had good effects, making it more suitable for this era where prescriptions and medicines were scarce.

(I once met a practitioner of classical formulas who knew Six Channels Differentiation; his use of medicine was truly impressive. He used few medicines, and the prescriptions he used were just those few, back and forth, yet the effect was excellent. Four prescriptions in eight days; I was deeply shocked. If there is an opportunity in the future, I must go and learn from him.)

However, learning the Six Channels Differentiation was too difficult. Baifeng himself had not learned it back then, and did not even know the basics. If one could thoroughly master the Treatise on Cold Damage, then the Six Channels Differentiation would naturally not be a difficult task, and one could also raise the level of medicine in this era a step higher.

Now that Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe were exploring together, they had already achieved new results in many aspects. Within the next two years, Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe would join forces to jointly compile a set of medical textbooks to completely and perfectly build the medical system.

As long as there were books that could be read through, the doctors of their two tribes would no longer be as scarce as they were now. Huaxia's doctors were already fast enough, but the Xuanyuan Tribe had almost no doctors. Because of the cooperative relationship with Huaxia, there were a few Huaxia doctors stationed in the Xuanyuan Tribe who could also diagnose and treat Xuanyuan Tribe officials, but ordinary people did not have this opportunity.

However, this time, Baifeng did not take Yuzhu back with him, because once he left, the Western Development Group would have no doctors, so Yuzhu could only return next year after a new doctor came to take over.

And after Yuzhu returned, he could naturally go to the Huaxia City Hospital or Lema City Hospital to continue his studies. Once his level improved further, it could be determined according to the current situation of Huaxia's doctors whether he would stay or go to those town-level hospitals to hold clinics.

Now the scale of Huaxia's town-level hospitals was also quite considerable; after all, they had developed for so many years. In the past, only a dozen or so, or at most a few dozen, doctors could be trained in a year. Now, about two hundred medical students graduated every year. They would spend a year or two at the grassroots level, then come back to continue their studies, and after learning well, go to the grassroots level again.

But the so-called grassroots level at this time had already been built quite well. The scale of the hospitals was large, the facilities were perfect, and the number of medical staff was high. After they went there, they would naturally be doctors at the Associate Director level, because to continue to improve their professional titles, they had to undergo training and examinations at the Huaxia City Central Hospital and pass them.

Now Huaxia's assessment of doctors was also quite strict. Generally speaking, as long as one passed the school's graduation assessment, one automatically obtained the qualification to practice medicine, because Huaxia's current requirements for doctors were still relatively low.

But at the same time, if you wanted to continue to move up, wanted to earn more, and have more power, you had to take exams. The first year after graduation when going to the grassroots level, one was a Practicing Assistant, focusing on learning and accumulating experience. After completing the year, after assessment, one became a Practicing Physician. Then continue to study, continue to take exams: Attending Physician, Associate Director, Director.

To become a Dean or Vice Dean of hospitals like Lema City or Huaxia City Central Hospital, in addition to passing one's own assessments, one also had to have innovations in theory and technology. One needed to improve and develop medical technology so as to better develop Huaxia's medicine.

This was a perfect incentive mechanism, which was why those doctors were willing to continue learning and working hard. If Yuzhu stayed in the Western Development Group, he would have no opportunity to continue learning. Even if he were a department director, he would still only be an ordinary Practicing Physician, and his future development prospects would be too poor. The treatment of a director did not mean he truly had the ability of a director. When the Western Development Group's hospital developed better and more doctors came, a director like him who relied on hard work would sooner or later be squeezed out by newcomers with real talent and learning, which was why he was so impatient to go back.

Wuzhong felt more like he had found his life's value in the Western Development Group, so he had no intention of going back at all. Anyway, he didn't need to worry about his family affairs at all; no matter how big the matter was at his home, Baifeng would handle it, so Wuzhong was not worried.

Plus, he was broad-minded and didn't miss home much. He could fully accept the poor environment here, and for him, suffering hardship was completely irrelevant.

Baifeng also promised those who stayed that next year, he would send more people over to carry out a real major development of the Western Development Group and build a major military city.

Relying on the military camp to develop this town, once the number of soldiers increased, consumption would rise, and more people would move in—half-farming and half-herding—and it was also time to build a real, perfect government system. By then, more girls of marriageable age would come over, and the life-long events of Wuzhong, Ce, and the others would also have a chance to be resolved.