Lim Byungmook, Park Jongbae, Han Changyon
Pusan National University School of Korean Medicine, Pusan, Republic of Korea.
J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Mar;15(3):217-23. doi: 10.1089/acm.2008.0294.
To summarize the way North Korea attempted to modernize its system of traditional medicine and integrate it with Western biomedicine.
We reviewed clinical textbooks and periodicals of traditional Korean medicine published in North Korea, research reports on North Korean health and medicine published elsewhere, and conducted interviews of defectors from North Korea who were students or clinicians of traditional medicine.
Key findings of this study are: (1) North Korea has attempted several ways of integrating traditional medicine into education and clinical practices; (2) North Korea's communist government provided the main driving force for an integration policy; (3) school curricula of both Western and traditional Korean medicine incorporated knowledge of both disciplines, yet more weight was placed on traditional Korean medicine; (4) a combination of Western diagnosis and Korean therapeutics was the most frequent example of integration, while the dual system approach with reciprocal practice was also explored; (5) several forms of integrative therapeutic mixture were practiced including concurrent medication, injection on acupuncture points, and intramuscular or intravenous injection of extracts from medicinal plants; and (6) limited resources for research and the underdeveloped level of clinical research failed to secure rigorous scientific advancement.
Despite the government-driven attempt to create an ideal integrative system of medicine, according to our findings, the actual introduction of an integrative system into practice was far from the North Korean government's anticipated outcome in regards to clinical practice. We hypothesize this was due to famine, economic crisis, and political isolation from the international realm. Traditional Korean medicine seems to have served the population, which is in desperate need of treatment amid difficulties in health, while North Korea's Western biomedicine-based health delivery system has been badly affected.
总结朝鲜试图使其传统医学体系现代化并将其与西方生物医学相结合的方式。
我们查阅了朝鲜出版的韩医学临床教科书和期刊、其他地方发表的有关朝鲜健康与医学的研究报告，并对曾是韩医学学生或临床医生的朝鲜叛逃者进行了访谈。
本研究的主要发现如下：（1）朝鲜尝试了多种将传统医学融入教育和临床实践的方式；（2）朝鲜的共产主义政府为整合政策提供了主要驱动力；（3）西方医学和韩医学的学校课程都纳入了这两个学科的知识，但更侧重于韩医学；（4）西医诊断与韩医治疗相结合是最常见的整合方式，同时也探索了相互实践的双重体系方法；（5）实施了多种形式的综合治疗混合方法，包括同时用药、穴位注射、以及药用植物提取物的肌肉注射或静脉注射；（6）研究资源有限以及临床研究水平不发达未能确保严格的科学进步。
尽管政府推动建立理想的综合医学体系，但根据我们的研究结果，在临床实践方面，综合体系的实际引入远未达到朝鲜政府的预期效果。我们推测这是由于饥荒、经济危机以及与国际领域的政治隔绝所致。韩医学似乎为在健康困境中急需治疗的民众提供了服务，而朝鲜以西医学为基础的医疗服务体系则受到了严重影响。
