The General Office of the State Council issued a document on Sept 23, urging related departments to develop medical education with innovations, in an effort to cope with new challenges brought by the COVID-19 epidemic and to better implement the Healthy China strategy.

According to the circular, by 2025, a system for cultivating high-level medical talent — who master not only medicine but also other disciplines — will be built, with an improved incentive mechanism.

And by 2030, capabilities will be significantly enhanced in medical research innovations and public health services.

Majors such as clinical medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) should recruit students with higher educational backgrounds, and the system for cultivating high-level talent specializing in public health should be established at a faster pace, it said.

Education on medical ethics and sci-tech integrity should also be conducted to strengthen their professional qualities.

The circular also called on inheriting TCM amid innovations, while ensuring its dominant role in TCM colleges.

Construction of innovative bases for basic research in medicine should be accelerated, and a standardized training mechanism for resident doctors perfected, it added.