For a long time, medical values have been marked by cure, with the main goal of saving lives, removing the cause, and reversing pathology and pathophysiology. For this reason, disease regression was classified as: cure, improvement, unchanged and deterioration. This was certainly reasonable in an era when infectious diseases were the main spectrum of diseases. But the wheel of history keeps on rolling and the basic concept of medical values keeps on sublimating. The regression of most diseases today can no longer simply end in a cure. The causes of most diseases are related to the environment, psychology, behavior, genetics, and aging, and their etiology cannot be easily removed, nor can their pathology and pathophysiological changes be completely reversed. The reform of our healthcare system aims to improve the input/output ratio of healthcare, or the value for money of healthcare services, as much as possible. And inevitably, the basic concept of medical value is involved in assessing the value-for-money ratio. 1. Function – the eternal goal of medicine Life lies in movement. Motor function is the sign of biological activity and the most prominent external expression of the function of human organs, tissues and systems. The common goal of clinical medicine and rehabilitation medicine is to improve function, but the approach and philosophy are different. Clinical medicine addresses disease and emphasizes removing the cause and reversing pathological or pathophysiological abnormalities. The function of organs and systems after clinical treatment relies primarily on natural recovery. However, it is difficult to completely remove the cause and reverse the condition of most diseases. The so-called “cure” is often only a remission of an acute process. Clinical treatment is essentially over when the etiology, pathology and pathophysiology cannot be changed. Due to the lack of active functional exercise, the clinical treatment effect is affected, and even too much sedation leads to unnecessary dysfunction, forming a vicious circle. For example, in patients with acute myocardial infarction, the past philosophy overemphasized myocardial protection and advocated that patients rest in bed for 6 weeks to await myocardial scar formation. However, prolonged bed rest itself can lead to reduced blood volume, increased blood viscosity, etc., which aggravates the already impaired cardiovascular dysfunction and also leads to further impairment of physical exercise capacity. This is a knot that is difficult to untie in clinical medicine itself. Rehabilitation medicine is aimed at functional disorders. The soil in which rehabilitation medicine was born is the limitation of clinical medicine. Many diseases are difficult to remove the cause. Or serious dysfunction has been formed, and even if the cause is removed, the dysfunction may not be automatically overcome. The dysfunction of various civilizational, geriatric, and physical and mental diseases is related to the lack of exercise. When physiological functions cannot be recovered, such as amputation and complete spinal cord injury, there is no special effective method for clinical medical treatment, while rehabilitation medical treatment has a great role to play and is one of the most critical medical services, as well as a very important expansion and continuation of clinical medical treatment. 2, the social value of rehabilitation medical rehabilitation medical value is first of all to solve the problems that are difficult to solve by clinical medical treatment, including long-term functional impairment or loss. For example, for patients with complete spinal cord injury, rehabilitation medical treatment uses orthotics to improve or restore walking ability, wheelchair training to enable patients to travel longer distances and adapt to more complex terrain, occupational therapy to restore patients’ ability to take care of themselves, and psychotherapy to restore patients’ self-confidence and self-reliance. The value of rehabilitation medicine is also reflected in the reduction of clinical treatment load and improvement of therapeutic efficacy. For example, early rehabilitation activities for patients with acute myocardial infarction is one of the basic measures to help patients to be discharged from hospital in 7-10 days; exercise for patients with hypertension and diabetes can reduce the amount of medication used; reasonable rehabilitation after hip replacement will be necessary to reduce comorbidities, prolong the life of the prosthesis and improve the patient’s mobility. Many people with disabilities do not participate in society as much as we do, while enjoying the rewards society gives us. People with disabilities are often isolated and unable to be independent. Rehabilitation medicine is a fundamental component of community health services. Through rehabilitation services, many people with disabilities are able to significantly improve their psychological state, increase their initiative to participate in social activities, and restore patients to as normal a social life as possible. Rehabilitation medical care is not an additional addition to basic medical care, but an important basic component. Rehabilitation medicine is not mere convalescence or health care. The emphasis of rehabilitation medicine is on improving or restoring the patient’s function through active functional training and necessary aids. Leisure massage, simple recreation, recuperation, etc. are not rehabilitation medical treatment. 3, the economic value of rehabilitation medicine The social benefits of rehabilitation medicine have been recognized, but many people believe that the economic benefits of rehabilitation medicine do not work, so it cannot be developed effectively at present. This is an important social factor that hinders the development of rehabilitation medicine. The misunderstanding of the economic benefits of rehabilitation medicine comes from the misunderstanding of the economic benefit analysis of hospitals. Hospital economic efficiency analysis has been based on absolute economic revenue for many years, which is related to the revenue-dependent nature of hospitals in China. But nowadays, the economic efficiency of hospitals internationally is no longer measured by the absolute value of income, but emphasizes net income, input/output ratio value, social resource occupation ratio, etc. If calculated according to the input/output ratio, the equipment input of rehabilitation medicine department is significantly lower than most clinical departments. The equipment in the medical-technical department mainly serves the clinical departments and is less used in the rehabilitation medicine department. If the depreciation of equipment in the medical and technical departments is apportioned to the clinical departments according to the frequency or quantity of use, the hospital equipment input index occupied by rehabilitation medicine is even lower than that of other clinical departments. With a lower than average input, rehabilitation medicine can obtain an output equal to or even higher than the average. In terms of the proportion of resources occupied by hospital support systems, rehabilitation medicine occupies relatively few logistical and administrative resources (less use of various storage, equipment maintenance, surgery, and other material supplies) and few medical compensation and accident disputes, and is therefore among the departments that occupy the fewest resources. From the point of view of national or regional health resources utilization, the value of medical measures should be considered not only the direct value generated by the medical treatment, but also the indirect value resulting from the treatment, including the value created by the patient’s early return to work (the value of the patient’s direct work and the cost of having his or her work done by others during the patient’s sick leave), as well as the value of reduced recurrence of disease or reduced hospital visits due to improved function. The value of reduced other medical costs due to improved function and therefore reduced recurrence or hospital visits, etc. Measures with lower treatment costs and significant functional improvement will be the highest value form of care. Rehabilitation medicine certainly has a strong advantage in this regard.