China-France Medical Science and Public Health Symposium Held in Shanghai

In order to promote the academic exchange and cooperation between China and France in the field of medical science, China-France Medical Science and Public Health Symposium, hosted by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and French Academy of Medical Sciences, co-organized by Ruijin Hospital affiliated to the College of Medical Sciences of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai Institute of Hematology and Shanghai Academician Advisory and Academic Activity Center, was opened on September 21, 2010, in the France Pavilion of Shanghai World Expo.

The opening ceremony of the symposium was presided over by CAE Member Yang Shengli, in which 7 speakers were invited to give presentations, who were Mr. Zhou Ji, President of CAE, Mr. Shen Xiaoming, Vice Mayor of Shanghai Municipality, Mr. He Wei, Director of the Science and Education Department of Ministry of Health, Mr.

Roger Henrion, President of the French Academy of Medical Sciences, Mr. Laurent Degos, President of the French National Health Assessment Agency, Mr. Rodolphe Richard, the French Deputy Consul General in Shanghai, together with CAE Member Liu Depei, also the chairperson of the Symposium Organizing Committee.

Present in the symposium included CAE Members Wang Zhenyi, Chen Saijuan, Ruan Changgeng and CAE Foreign Member Prof. Jacques P. Caen. Coincidentally enough, all the speakers reviewed the fruitful cooperation both sides had carried out in the medical health field for many years and then the fruitful results deriving from it.

They also expressed their wish to further enrich the exchanges and strengthen the collaboration between CAE, Shanghai Municipality and the French Academy of Medical Sciences in the field of medical health in the future, by giving play to their respective strengths, dealing with global disease prevention and treatment jointly, thus promoting the innovative development of both countries in the area of medical health.

Leaders from both sides extended great expectations for the prospects for cooperation in a much broader sense between both Academies and both regions in the future. Zhou said that CAE has always been concerned with the improvement of the health condition of the broad masses of the people. Zhou also said that CAE Members have not only made great progress in the fields of medical studies, personnel training and medical & health work, but also actively conducted consulting studies, advising the nation on policies of crucial importance.

Zhou hoped that experts could aim at frontier areas for research, lay stress on key points worthy of top priority, stay focused and based on patients needs, master the collective laws, pay due attention to personnel training, guide and help their followers and successors earnestly, thus further enrich and deepen the exchanges and collaborations between the two countries in the field of medical science and technology for the benefit of both peoples.

On the 2-day symposium, more than 120 academicians and experts coming from a number of Chinese and French universities, research institutes and hospitals exchanged their viewpoints with regard to key issues on the cut-ting edge in the field of medical science in the present world. First of all, both sides conducted an in-depth discussion concerning hot issues in health management such as medical assessment and health care reform.

Academician Chen Zhu, China s Minister of Health, delivered a video presentation at the meeting, in which he introduced to all the symposium attendees home and abroad the direction for development of China s health care reform in the future. Mr. Xu Jianguang, Director of Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, described in detail the huge amount of work that had been done in the construction of community health care network, adjustment of the allocation of medical resources and efforts to improve the health care system in Shanghai.

Academicians and experts from the two countries also discussed the pathogenesis of leukemia and the targeted treatment strategies, looked forward to the prospects of repairing human organs based on stem cells and tissue engineering, and exchanged between the two countries the latest progress and significant findings in heart, liver and other organ transplantation, and discussed other issues of common concern as well. (By Guan Jian and Wang Yang, translated by Liu Chang)