The weeklong conference, titled Health Care, East and West, Moving into the 21st Century, organized by Harvard Medical International and the Chinese Medical Association, began Sunday.

The Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Yang Jiechi, and the Chinese Minister of Health, Zhang Wenkang, MD, will attend. The Chinese delegation also includes Wu Jieping, MD, China's most prominent doctor and former physician to Mao Zedong, ten presidents of Chinese medical colleges, universities and academies, and other prominent institutional leaders.

Taking nearly two years to organize, the delegation includes physicians of modern and traditional Chinese medicine, dentists, basic scientists and clinical researchers, nurses, health policy investigators and pharmacists. Principal funding for the conference comes from Johnson & Johnson, the health care products manufacturer, with additional funding from a private foundation.

"This is an opportunity for U.S. and Chinese physicians to compare the pros and cons of their respective health care delivery systems and begin to consider common solutions to shared problems," says Miles Shore, MD, conference vice chairman and senior education consultant, Harvard Medical International.

The conference has twin goals: to forge continuing personal connections between colleagues from each country and to analyze each health system to find new approaches to shared medical needs.

The conference will address major themes such as integrating modern medicine with traditional Chinese medicine in both countries, the threat of unhealthy environments, mental health challenges, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, preventive medicine and a variety of other topics.

During work group sessions in the evening -- on topics such as anesthesiology and pain control, dental medicine, nursing, primary care/family medicine and women's health -- participants will interact in smaller gatherings.

Established in 1994 to extend the mission of Harvard Medical School worldwide, Harvard Medical International is a self-supporting, non-profit subsidiary of Harvard University and is guided by the philosophy that every citizen of the world should have easy access to high quality health care. HMI creates partnerships with a network of international organizations to promote excellence in health care, medical education and research. - By John Lacey

Related websties:

For more information on the conference, including U.S. members of the delegation and specific meeting titles and times, please visit the meeting website.

For information on Harvard Medical International (HMI), go to Harvard Medical International.

[Contact: John Lacey]

25-Jun-2001