Tools for Studying Traditional Medicine for Modern Use

Date: 28 October, Saturday | Time: 11:30am - 1:00pm | Venue: LT5, Gaia, Nanyang Technological University

Speaker: Asst Prof Michael Stanley-Baker, Mr Joachim Prackwieser, Dr Shirlynn Ho

Moderator: Advanced Practice Nurse Joanna Phone Ko

Programme Description

This panel presents new digital tools and resources for the study of traditional medicines, and methods for applying them. It describes a large-corpus collection of medical manuscripts in Chinese and Malay, a digital synonymy that links across the two languages as well as linking out to biodiversity, historical and bioactivity databases. It also describes ongoing analysis of traditional recipes to uncover archaic treatment protocols in the tradition, and propose new vectors for bioactivity research.

Speaker Bio

Asst Prof Michael Stanley-Baker	Assistant Professor Michael Stanley-Baker is a medical humanities scholar specialising in the migration of knowledge across cultures, particularly within China. His research examines how cultural categories like religion, medicine, and science shape health practices historically and globally. He also develops digital tools to enhance understanding of traditional medicine. With a background in Medical History (Ph.D. from University College London) and a clinical degree in Chinese medicine, he holds dual appointments in the School of Humanities and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. He teaches courses on the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in East Asia and Medical Humanities. Additionally, he serves as Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM). He has conducted research at prestigious institutions worldwide and received support from organizations such as the Wellcome Trust, Max Planck Institute, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. His work contributes significantly to bridging the gap between traditional and modern medicine. Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine PolyglotAsianMedicine.com Situating Medicine and Religion In Asia
Mr Joachim Prackwieser	Mr Joachim Prackwieser is a sinologist and economist by training. He currently pursues his PhD at Nanyang Technological University. During the previous 5 years he worked in the field of drug discovery through data mining historical Chinese medical recipes of popular origin at the Charité University Hospital Berlin, Germany. At NTU he deepens and expands this research by studying the knowledge transmission of these recipes. Through comparing them to printed historical formularies more nuanced data mining results will be achieved.
Dr Shirlynn Ho	Dr Shirlynn Ho is deputy head of division as well as senior consultant in the Division of Supportive and Palliative Care in National Cancer Centre Singapore. Her passion is in capacity building and fostering clinical collaborations between different institutions across settings to bring about greater access to quality palliative care. Her clinical experience in both tertiary hospital as well as community setting, her current role as director of clinical services in the Singhealth-DukeNUS Supportive and Palliative Care Centre as well as Assistant Secretary in the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network allows her to pursue this cause. She had been involved in various Lien Centre for Palliative Care programmes (Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, China) aimed at training and capacity building in the Asia Pacific Region, and is currently lead for the programme for Bhutan and co-lead for the programme in India. Her latest interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine has led her to pursue a graduate diploma in acupuncture as she further explores the role of integrative medicine for oncology patients.

Asst Prof Michael Stanley-Baker

Assistant Professor Michael Stanley-Baker is a medical humanities scholar specialising in the migration of knowledge across cultures, particularly within China. His research examines how cultural categories like religion, medicine, and science shape health practices historically and globally. He also develops digital tools to enhance understanding of traditional medicine.
With a background in Medical History (Ph.D. from University College London) and a clinical degree in Chinese medicine, he holds dual appointments in the School of Humanities and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. He teaches courses on the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in East Asia and Medical Humanities. Additionally, he serves as Vice President of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM). He has conducted research at prestigious institutions worldwide and received support from organizations such as the Wellcome Trust, Max Planck Institute, and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. His work contributes significantly to bridging the gap between traditional and modern medicine.

Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine

PolyglotAsianMedicine.com

Situating Medicine and Religion In Asia

Mr Joachim Prackwieser

Mr Joachim Prackwieser is a sinologist and economist by training. He currently pursues his PhD at Nanyang Technological University. During the previous 5 years he worked in the field of drug discovery through data mining historical Chinese medical recipes of popular origin at the Charité University Hospital Berlin, Germany. At NTU he deepens and expands this research by studying the knowledge transmission of these recipes. Through comparing them to printed historical formularies more nuanced data mining results will be achieved.

Dr Shirlynn Ho

Dr Shirlynn Ho is deputy head of division as well as senior consultant in the Division of Supportive and Palliative Care in National Cancer Centre Singapore. Her passion is in capacity building and fostering clinical collaborations between different institutions across settings to bring about greater access to quality palliative care. Her clinical experience in both tertiary hospital as well as community setting, her current role as director of clinical services in the Singhealth-DukeNUS Supportive and Palliative Care Centre as well as Assistant Secretary in the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network allows her to pursue this cause.

She had been involved in various Lien Centre for Palliative Care programmes (Sri Lanka, India, Bhutan, China) aimed at training and capacity building in the Asia Pacific Region, and is currently lead for the programme for Bhutan and co-lead for the programme in India.

Her latest interest in Traditional Chinese Medicine has led her to pursue a graduate diploma in acupuncture as she further explores the role of integrative medicine for oncology patients.

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