CMB was invited to present its work on graduate medical education in China at the China-U.S. Health Cooperation Symposium, held in Washington, DC on September 27. The high-level symposium was opened by China’s Vice Premier Liu Yandong and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, who spoke about current bilateral programming in health development and possibilities for future U.S.-China collaboration. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and China’s National Health and Family Planning Services Commission (NHFPC) were the co-organizers of the program, and members of the Chinese delegation included, in addition to Vice Premier Liu, Minister Li Bin of the NHFPC; Zheng Zeguang, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Cao Xuetao, President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

In her opening remarks, Vice Premier Li pointed to China’s progress in raising estimated longevity to 76.3 years and noted that 6 percent of China’s GDP is directed to the health sector. Still, she indicated, greater efforts are needed to strengthen primary care, and a broader construct of health, including poverty alleviation, should be adopted. She called for greater international collaboration in global health; public health training; innovation, including health IT and stem cell research; and research on cardiovascular disease, cancer, and brain sciences.

A pair of presentations on building health capacity featured Zhan Qimin, Peking University vice president and director of the Peking University Health Sciences Center, and Tom Inui, CMB trustee emeritus. Dr. Inui described CMB’s collaboration with leading Chinese medical universities on standardized residency training (SRT), highlighting competency measurement/feedback and professionalism curriculum as areas deserving strengthening. With support from CMB, the China Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals for Residency Education Consortium was launched in 2015 to spearhead reform of residency education in the country.