CUHK Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care Hosts the “Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao University Alliance Summit on Post-pandemic Challenges in Public Health”
The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care (the School), Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) hosted the “Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macao University Alliance (GHMUA) Summit on Post-pandemic Challenges in Public Health” (the Summit) on 12 and 13 May 2023. The School also organised a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing ceremony to renew the collaboration for the five partners of GHMUA Public Health Sub-Alliance on 13 May to deepen academic exchanges and scientific research collaboration in the field of public health. As the Summit coincided with the World Health Organization’s recent declaration on 5 May that COVID-19 no longer constituted a public health emergency of international concern, making the Summit particularly meaningful. The Summit attracted more than 250 scholars, teachers and students from Hong Kong, Macao and the Mainland.
This was the first time for the School to organise a mixed mode GHMUA Summit at CUHK. Over 27 top-notch public health leaders from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao took part the Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to bring together public health scholars in the region to share insights and relevant research results and let every participant reflects on the challenges faced by public health during the pandemic, so as to learn, reshape, innovate, and respond to the current and future public health challenges of our time.
Officiating guests at the opening ceremony included Professor Lo Chung-mau, BBS, JP, Secretary for Health, the HKSAR Government; Professor Rocky S. Tuan, Vice-Chancellor / President of CUHK, and Professor Samuel Wong Yeung-shan, Director of the School. “The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for society, and it reminds us of the value and necessity of Public Health,” said Professor Samuel Wong Yeung-shan in his welcoming remarks at the opening ceremony.
Following the ceremony, Professor Shen Hongbing, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Director, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, delivered a keynote presentation on “Reflections on the high-quality development of disease control and prevention system of China in the post-COVID-19 era”. His presentation provided participants with the new understandings of the most updated development of disease control and preventive system in the mainland China after the pandemic. The second keynote speaker Professor Liang Wannian, Head of the National Health Commission's COVID-19 leading task force and Executive Vice-Dean, Vanke School of Public Health Tsinghua University, gave his views on “Building a resilient public health system”. In his presentation, Professor Liang shared his experience in taking charge of the National Health Commission's COVID-19 leading task force in China during the pandemic and highlighted the importance of establishing a resilient public health system to address future public health challenges. On the second day of the Summit, the third keynote speaker, Professor Wu Tangchun, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dean of Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, spoke on “Air pollution and cardiopulmonary disease - evidence, mechanism, prevention and action”. Based on his observations and findings during the pandemic, Professor Wu further elaborated his insights on the mechanism of air pollution and preventive actions for cardiopulmonary diseases.
In addition, a number of well-known public health experts were also invited as speakers and moderators for the four scientific sessions covering the post-pandemic challenges on the following themes, (1) infectious diseases, (2) environmental challenges, (3) policy and health services challenges, and (4) non-communicable diseases during the Summit. At the end of each scientific session, the moderators conducted a panel discussion allowing participants to have in-depth discussions on how the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to public health could lead to further research, development, and innovation. It also allowed participants to benefit from the insights shared by all the speakers to refine and reshape the role of public health and the necessary actions to take in society.
A MOU signing ceremony for the GHMUA Public Health Sub-Alliance was conducted at the end of the Summit to renew the collaboration amongst the five partners, namely (in alphabetical order according to the name of the university) the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at CU Medicine; School of Public Health at the Southern Medical University; School of Public Health at Sun Yat-sen University; School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong; and Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Macau.
For more information about the Summit, please visit: https://www.sphpc.cuhk.edu.hk/ghmua-summit-2023.