Hospital events create fun especially with Olympic champions
Residents enjoyed traditional Chinese medicine therapies, drinking herbal teas, visiting high-tech operation theatres, inspecting high-end medical equipment and receiving health care services this weekend.
It was all in aid of a scientific education week that was launched by health authorities.
Winners of the Paris Olympics were also invited to participate, calling for the public awareness of proper lifestyles, sports and health care.
Many parents brought their children to interesting activities such as learning how medical equipment works and the meaning of various medical checks. Children expressed a strong interest in medicine and innovation.
"A total of 37 city-level medical facilities participated in this hospital-opening event, which is to showcase their excellent professional capability and patient-centered service theory," said Zhao Dandan from Shanghai Hospital Development Center, the organizer.
"Such an event can make medical professionals become a major power of health education and shorten the distance between hospitals and the public, which can have better access to knowledge on disease prevention and health care."
Hospitals were very eager to participate.
At Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM is not an old-style issue but a fashionable and China-chic issue.
Herbal mooncakes, TCM aromatherapy oil, herbal wrist pads and herbal cuisine are displayed at its Jiading branch.
People also can enjoy services like tuina, futie (herbal medicine applied to acupoints) and guasha (scraping the neck, chest or back to relieve pains).
Many young people said they have never thought that TCM products were so chic and fun.
The hospital also invited residents to visit its smart TCM pharmacy and drug delivery system, the first in the city, showing how modern TCM is using intelligent methods to improve efficiency.
For children, visiting a hospital is an eye-opening opportunity.
Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital teams up with Shanghai Medical Emergency Center to offer local children and parents a very special experience on Sunday, when children can see how ultrasound works and parents have chances to ask questions to doctors.
As a birthplace of China's ultrasound technology, the hospital carefully designed a series of experience programs, which included hospital visits, ultrasound checks and latest equipment displays.
At the laboratory, medical staff demonstrated the latest portable ultrasound machine, which allows patients to carry out checks at home and doctors to carry out assessments based on long-distance imaging data.
Children tried the machine by themselves and carry out checks on their parents.
"It is not only a scientific education but also a chance for education on life and love," said Dr Zheng Yuanyi, vice president of Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital.
"When we told children that their mother received ultrasound checks when they were fetuses, they are were moved and expressed gratitude for their mother."
The meaning of medicine was further highlighted when children visited Shanghai Medical Emergency Center, the neighbor of the sixth people's hospital. After seeing a real ambulance and the busy hotline hall, they have a deep feeling of how each life is saved when every minute counts.
"I want to be a doctor after today's experience," said a young boy after the event. "It is very interesting and meaningful."