UNC, Peking University to co-sponsor Beijing conference on health-care reform in China

The December conference, “Harmonious Development and Reaching Health for All,” is the latest in a growing series of collaborations between UNC administrators, faculty, students and staff and their counterparts at some of China’s leading universities, government agencies and other organizations.

Dr. Min Weifang, executive vice president and chairman of the University Council of Peking University, will make his first visit to North Carolina this week, and his itinerary includes discussing plans for the conference.

Min, a leading educational expert in China, is scheduled to arrive here Tuesday (Oct. 31) for a six-day tour. UNC will serve as the primary host for his trip. He will be honored at a luncheon, receive a briefing on global health initiatives involving UNC investigators and a tour of the School of Public Health, attend a reception hosted by the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise and meet with academics in the department of Asian studies. Other stops are planned at RTI International, the Lenovo Group, SAS and Quintiles Transnational, as well as Duke and N.C. State universities.

Min and UNC Chancellor James Moeser will serve as honorary co-chairs of the health-care conference Dec. 11-12 in Beijing, which Moeser will attend during his first visit to China.

Min has been responsible for a wide range of operations at Peking University since 1995, including academic affairs, faculty development, personnel, finance and university high-tech industry programs. He is a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Center on Chinese Education and has been visiting U.S. campuses including Stanford University.

“Dr. Min and his colleagues at Peking University have already proven to be wonderful collaborators,” Moeser said. “Our respective visits to Chapel Hill and Beijing will help solidify a strategic partnership in China that will be mutually beneficial for the university and North Carolina in the future.”

In many sectors of its economy, China has made the transition from central to market forces, conference organizers said. In the health-care arena, however, concerns have emerged about whether market forces alone will best serve citizens. As a result, government officials are examining how market forces can help improve the health-care system while at the same time protect individuals.

“Our universities have a wonderful opportunity to address the major challenges facing both China and the United States,” Min said. “To further our collaboration, Peking University and UNC have chosen health-care issues as the theme because this is an opportune moment in China given the importance of health-care reform and the imperative for the government, scholars and business to develop solutions that will help us all.”

Speakers at the health-care conference will include scholars from UNC and Peking University, government officials, representatives of international organizations involved in public health and development, and private health-care companies. Issues expected to be covered at the conference include health-care financing, payment systems, organizational change, law and regulation and human resources. Organizers hope the event will serve as an international forum where resulting proposals can be shared with high-level Chinese government officials.

UNC is celebrating globalization as a major theme this academic year. Next spring, the university will dedicate the FedEx Global Education Center, which will bring together academic programs, research and student services. In May, the university will dedicate its European Study Center in London to serve as a base for the Honors Program and enhance a relationship with King’s College, London. Collaborations are flourishing with the National University of Singapore, where UNC has developed a joint undergraduate degree program that is unique among its U.S. peers. That program’s launch followed up a visit by Moeser and a UNC delegation to Singapore and Bangkok in 2005.

Now the university is turning its attention to China. More than 120 faculty and staff are now participating in working groups for China-related topics. The university has signed several memorandums of understanding with collaborators and held joint programs with the Chinese government.

Other recent examples of UNC collaborations in China include the School of Medicine’s numerous research collaborations related to AIDS. These efforts include work with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and the National Center for HIV/Aids Prevention and Control. A new National Institutes of Health grant funded a joint training program along with Peking University’s department of health economics and management and the Chinese Center for Disease Control.

UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and Tsinghua University recently established a Center for Logistics and Digital Strategy, and with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the partners have sponsored two conferences on Olympic logistics in advance of the 2008 summer Olympics.

UNC contact: Mike McFarland, (919) 962-8593, mike_mcfarland@unc.edu.

School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7467, ramona_dubose@unc.edu.