To actively guide young people to practice new development concepts and devote themselves to healthcare technology innovation, the first national youth healthcare innovation competition was held. A total of 448 clinical projects were registered. After careful screening, 306 of them made it to the preliminary round, and 36 shortlisted for the final.

On July 22, 2022, the kick-off meeting for the final in clinical medicine and the training meeting were held at PUMCH. Representatives of clinical and translational medicine specialists as well as innovative enterprises were invited as special guests to this conference, where they conducted trainings on topics such as “how to innovate as a clinician”. At the kick-off meeting, Yang Jianli, Executive Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, encouraged young medical practitioners to commit themselves to innovation in thinking and action, engage in clinical practices, follow and take advantage of the trends, contributing to the high-quality development of healthcare.

On July 24, the final in clinical medicine was held in the form of online roadshow and defense. The judge panel comprises 39 judges from various fields in the medical industry, universities and research institutes. Each project was graded comprehensively given its innovation, implementation, social implications and so on. These projects all focus on the clinical settings, where innovation is mostly needed, and propose solutions to prominent issues in healthcare, thus being of high clinical value.

“Young people’s ability to innovate will be a continuous contributor to the front-line research and development and medical and industrial production capacity, and its subsequent social and economic benefits can be immeasurable.” The judges are highly appreciative of those projects at the final. “Evaluating medical innovation projects in a competition is an effective way to discover high-quality innovation projects and talents,” said Wu Wenming, Vice President of PUMCH. Every step of medical innovation requires the support of a well-functioning platform. Supported by the healthcare youth innovation center, the clinical medical innovation competition will offer more solid and broader services for the projects, helping with the “last mile” in clinical medical innovation.

Group photo of leaders and guests at the opening ceremony

Written by: Yang Ruizhe, Luo Hanqing, and Luo Xin

Picture courtesy: Sun Liang

Translator: Liu Haiyan

Editor: Wang Yao