The 1st Pacific Rim Health Innovations Conference (PRHIC), which was co-organized by the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (FAH-SYSU) and the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley), got underway at the Guangzhou hospital on Sept 21.

The four-day conference focuses on robotic surgery, digital health, and response to public health emergencies. It consists of four symposiums, namely Global Lessons from COVID-19: Directions for Research and Interventions, Robotic Surgery: Global Advances, Advances in Health Informatics and Machine Learning: Reimagining the Use of Data for Health Care, and Innovation in Digital Health Technology: Reshaping Health Care Delivery.

The 1st Pacific Rim Health Innovations Conference (PRHIC) kicks off on Sept 21. [Photo provided to guangdong.chinadaily.com.cn]

The participants include experts from top institutions in the Pacific Rim, such as the University of California at Berkeley and Davis (USA), Johns Hopkins University (USA), Mayo Clinic (USA), University of Toronto (Canada), National Cancer Center Hospital (Japan), Singapore General Hospital (Singapore), the University of Hong Kong (China), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (China), Chinese PLA General Hospital (China), West China Hospital of Sichuan University (China), and Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University (China). Medical institutions from the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the countries and regions along the Belt and Road were also invited to the event. 

In addition, more than 100 overseas participants from 29 countries, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India, New Zealand, Italy, Turkey, Belarus, Thailand, Belarus, Georgia and Azerbaijan joined online and discussed promoting digital healthcare and innovation for human health and wellbeing.

Since the establishment of the partnership between FAH-SYSU and UC Berkeley in 2021, the two sides have carried out a series of activities in the fields of robotic surgery and digital health. Xiao Haipeng, president of FAH-SYSU, said that the conference would be a great opportunity to enhance international academic cooperation and exchanges, facilitate deep integration of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) with medical development, and accelerate the gathering of talents and resources in medical innovation.

It would also facilitate the efforts to work together to improve the accessibility of medical services, the ability of diagnosis and treatment of critical and complicated diseases, and the response to public health emergencies, Xiao noted.