China Can Meet Growing Healthcare Needs Through Investment and Collaboration — Professor Qiao Jie
China should adopt a strategic approach and make long-term investments to prepare for its population’s growing healthcare needs, according to Professor Qiao Jie, a leading reproductive physician and Executive Vice President of Peking University.
Professor CS Lau, Dean of Medicine, invited Professor Qiao to deliver the third lecture in the Dean’s Lecture Series celebrating 135 years of HKUMed at the end of September.
Professor Qiao is a leading figure in reproductive medicine in China and the President of Peking University Third Hospital. She heads a team that developed a new preimplantation genetic testing method that both improves accuracy and reduces costs.
Her lecture, titled “Strategic Scientific and Technological Capacity Building in Clinical Medicine”, examined how China can bolster its research capabilities and better mobilise resources to support population health.
“We have to put strategic planning and scientific projects in place. At the same time, we would like to look at long-term [healthcare] demand as a starting point,” she said. “When it comes to clinical medicine in relation to society’s needs and the support given by the overall structure, there are increasing demands for health services,” she said.
To meet these demands, the country should strengthen its existing institutions, such as medical schools and hospitals, with the support from private enterprises and the state, Professor Qiao said.
For 30 years, Professor Qiao has worked to improve maternity and reproductive health through basic research and her clinical practice. She credits her time studying as a visiting scholar HKUMed in the late 1990s for exposing her to top clinician-researchers.
This background drives her desire to increase China’s capacity for fundamental research. She highlighted that an estimated 95 percent of medical devices and 95 percent of evidence-based research used in the country are from overseas.
Highlighting the importance of long-term investment, Professor Qiao said there is also a need to encourage a passion for basic research among China’s scientific community.
“Sometimes it takes 10 years to make a sword, and so I think it is important to identify some meaningful targets and diseases to do subsequent research,” she said.
Professor Qiao said Peking University Third Hospital is currently collaborating with more than 20 enterprises to achieve more research breakthroughs. These collaborations complement the hospital’s research and development centre which was founded in 2021 through state and private funding.
“I think entrepreneurial spirit and scientific spirit, if combined, will be able to accelerate the conversion of research findings,” she said.
Following the lecture, Professor Lau moderated a panel discussion with Professor Qiao, Dr Joshua Ho, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences, Professor Tse Hung Fat, Chairperson of the Department of Medicine and Professor Xu Ming, Vice Dean, Graduate School of Peking University.
Professor Qiao’s lecture was the third event in our Dean’s Lecture Series. Read about the lecture by Professor Wang Chen, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College on the topic of “The Coming Era of Medicine, Health and Public Health.”
And catch up with the lecture delivered by Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham on the topic of “Innovating Our Way Out of COVID”. Professor Darzi is Leong Che-Hung Distinguished Visiting Professor in Leadership, Doctor of Science honoris causa, The University of Hong Kong.
The fourth lecture in the series, delivered by Professor Trudie E Roberts, Emeritus Professor, University of Leeds, will be held on December 12. Register for her “Producing a 21st Century Doctor” lecture.
