Historic glory for innovative health sciences

Celebration of 100th anniversary aims to leverage the latest scientific innovations to deliver world-class healthcare to the Chinese people

Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the whole family of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), I take the great honor to give you a brief introduction to CAMS and PUMC, and the achievements that the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has made in its 60 years history and those of Peking Union Medical College in its glorious 100 years history.

Peking Union Medical College was founded in 1917 under the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. It was the first medical institution in China offering an eight-year education program with PhD/MD degrees. Ever since its inception, as a leading medical school in China, PUMC has become the cradle for the Chinese modern medical educational system and today enjoys a world-renowned fame.

CAMS, founded in 1956, is a leading multidisciplinary medical research institute which takes the responsibility of nurturing the cutting-edge, first-class medical research in China and has served as a national think tank for health policy.

In 1957, PUMC merged with CAMS by incorporating their affiliations to 19 research institutes, six hospitals, and seven schools. Since then, the medical college and the academy have worked together under one administration and shared the same faculty, while maintaining their previous two institute names.

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Having forged a heritage of offering elite education to a selected cohort of top students in the past century, CAMS and PUMC hold fast to the principle of educating our students to the highest standards. Today, many outstanding medical experts and healthy policymakers are graduates of PUMC. I am going to acknowledge our alumni's contributions to medical sciences and public health.

As the leading national medical college and academy, PUMC and CAMS have made significant contributions to the advancement of medicine both at home and abroad, and have provided scientific medical support to ensure the well-being of Chinese people.

PUMC started the first nursing school of higher learning in China in 1920. Today it has become a pioneer in clinical medicine with the establishment of such programs as a premedical education program, residency training program and clinical graduate studies.

PUMC initiated the leading programs for modern health care system and medical education programs in China, and built the rural public health model. The evolution of PUMC has become such a significant and influential social practice in modern medical education that it is regarded as the cradle for Chinese modern medical education, a leading medical institute with rich experiences in the cultivation of medical talents for its educational system.

CAMS has been the think tank for the government on major public health issues and national social welfare. For example, CAMS provides critical consultation in the monitoring, preventing, and conquering of highly contagious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which struck southern China in 2002-2003.

In addition to efforts in enhancing China's top medical and research programs, CAMS and PUMC are also dedicated to the promotion of international cooperation. We would like to share our vision, our medical progress, and knowledge with our colleagues and friends worldwide by promoting scientific exchanges and joint training projects for young scientists and graduate students.

From 1917 to the present, PUMC has invited more than 246 world-class scholars and experts, including national presidents and Nobel Prize laureates, to come and share their insights with our faculty and researchers as honorary or visiting professors. In the past, over 240 foreign experts and scholars have been awarded the title of honorary professor or visiting professor at PUMC.

We now welcome and open our research facilities to the international science community and support in-depth collaborations with overseas researchers. CAMS is now exploring new ways to cultivate, support, evaluate, and guide the next generation of medical researchers in China.

Modern medicine has come a long way in China since PUMC began training our own domestic medical doctors. Today, modern Western medicine still remains the primary choice of health care for most Chinese people. While the spirit of comprehensive medical education has not changed much in the past century, there is no longer the sharp gap in the landscapes of biomedical research between China and the West than what it was 60 years ago, when CAMS and PUMC merged.

The fantastic economic growth in China in the past decades has greatly boosted the development of almost every area of science and technology including the aspects of funding and infrastructure, while there have been no such research institutes like CAMS and PUMC which enjoy such distinguished and valuable mission-driven heritage.

As the leading biomedical research organization in China, the goal of our research and innovation is to catch up with or even take the lead in the progress of biomedical science around the world.

As many of our researchers are now conducting world-class scientific research, we have reached out and built long-term collaborations to promote further intellectual and academic exchanges between China and other countries.

China now has been embarking on the way to the realization of our ambitious dream of comprehensive development.

Taking advantage of the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of PUMC this year, CAMS and PUMC will embark on a new journey of leveraging the latest scientific innovations through the cultivation of the best doctors and the provision of high-quality health care for the Chinese people with the aim to make more significant contributions to the medical sciences and medical education in China.

The author is president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College

(China Daily 09/22/2017 page6)