It is a major joint responsibility of the global medical science community as a whole to promote the health of all mankind, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic is still lingering in many parts of the world, medical experts from home and abroad said at a conference held in Shanghai.
RCOVID-19 director of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center in Israel, said that hospital alliances around the world have played an important role in the global fight against the pandemic, and they can work likewise in more disease areas.
"We should encourage medical institutions and associations as individuals to build up connections with one another. Their joint efforts will be a stronger weapon to combat diseases," he said at the 2021 Shanghai International Symposium on Medicine in the 21st Century through video link.
Leading medical professionals from 16 countries participated offline and online in the symposium held by Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Shanghai Rujin Hospital on Friday and Saturday.
Heitham Hassoun, vice-president and medical director for International at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, suggested establishing international standards for evaluating medical treatment quality as soon as possible for better, unified quality pursuit.
"We'll also prioritize strategic collaborations with medical institutions throughout the world in the center's future development," he said.
Several experts pointed out the importance to establish data platforms of the medical system to allow the collection of big data and its exchange between medical institutions to assist in diagnosis and treatment.
"Also, major medical institutions shall work closely with the pharmaceutical industry and share their research results worldwide," said Werner Kübler, director of the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.
Chen Zhu, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a health expert, shared information on the world's latest developments of new drugs, vaccines, and testing kits related to the novel coronavirus by citing World Health Organization data.
"Both innovation and collaboration are crucial when the world builds a health community of shared future. The two factors will help generate more medical discoveries and advancements as well as humane, patient-centered medical service," said Ning Guang, president of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital.
Altogether six frontier themes – future hospitals, hematology and oncology, brain medicine and advance rehabilitation, robotic surgery, emerging infectious disease and infection, and cardiovascular disease – were discussed during the two-day symposium.
