About the Authors

Chun-Chuan Shih

Contributed equally to this work with: Chun-Chuan Shih, Chien-Chang Liao

Affiliations The School of Chinese Medicine for Post-Baccalaureate, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan, Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, Taipei Chinese Medical Association, Taipei, Taiwan

Chien-Chang Liao

Contributed equally to this work with: Chun-Chuan Shih, Chien-Chang Liao

Affiliations Department of Anesthesiology, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, School of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, Center for Health Research, Taipei Medical University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Yi-Chang Su

Affiliation Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Chin-Chuan Tsai

Affiliation The School of Chinese Medicine for Post-Baccalaureate, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan

Jaung-Geng Lin

jglin@mail.cmu.edu.tw

Affiliation Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CCS CCL YCS CCT JGL. Performed the experiments: CCS CCL YCS CCT JGL. Analyzed the data: CCS CCL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CCS CCL YCS CCT JGL. Wrote the paper: CCS CCL YCS CCT JGL. Final approval of the version to be published: CCS CCL YCS CCT JGL.