'Shining light for medicine' in China turns 100

Peking Union Medical College Hospital, one of China's most prestigious medical institutions, celebrated its 100th anniversary last month with both domestic and foreign friends.

A hundred years ago, up to 280 global experts participated in a weeklong academic exchange and established the hospital. It was the beginning of China's modern medical era.

Just 100 days before the centenary celebration, the hospital signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Medical Board, which is headquartered in the United States in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Atlanta, Georgia, extending collaboration in areas related to academic enhancement — faculty development, support for residency training and further development of the China Nursing Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals.

"The signing has a significant meaning," said Zhang Shuyang, president of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. "The hospital and the medical board have a shared history. Their continued collaboration lenthens the friendship between the two sides and will actively promote communication between China and the United States."

"Throughout the history of the hospital, the CMB has always been our strongest friend and collaborator," Zhang said at the signing ceremony.

An independent foundation, the Rockefeller-endowed CMB has aimed to advance health in China and neighboring Asian countries through strengthening nursing, public health research and education since its launch in 1914.

Li Wenkai, chief representative at the CMB's Beijing office, joined the organization in 2015 after a long career at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He returned to China hoping to make greater contributions to academic exchanges and collaborative interaction between China and the US in the health sector.

"PUMCH and the CMB are an excellent model of nongovernmental exchanges between the two nations," he said. "Their long-standing cooperation sets an example for the world."

Appointed by the Rockefeller Institute in 1916, Franklin C. McLean, the first president of Peking Union Medical College, established high standards of teaching and research for "a complete medical school complex" in China. He then went back to the US, bringing what he learned in China with him.

"PUMCH has been a crucial academic exchange and collaboration platform for medical talent from China and the US since the very beginning," Li said. "Based on our deep trust, we will further accelerate our collaboration."

Barbara J. Stoll, president of CMB, said, "Even with their bold vision for the future, the founders of our respective institutions could not have predicted the enormous changes over the past century or imagined the PUMCH of today — ranked No 1 in China — a shining light for medicine throughout the world."