On January 23, 2024, PUMCH held an interim rally for the pilot of clinical research and translational medicine (hereinafter referred to as the pilot). The rally announced next steps for the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Program (hereinafter referred to as the clinical research program) and further mobilized personnel present, and offered more instructions on proceeding with the pilot. Academician Ba Denian, Academician Liu Depei, and Academician Zhang Xue were invited to attend the meeting. President Zhang Shuyang and Vice President Wu Peixin put forward requirements for the next steps of work. Officials from the Ministry of Finance and the National Health Commission delivered speeches. They were joined by nearly 600 PUMCH staffers, including hospital leaders, members of the expert committee of the clinical research program, and heads of departments and offices.

Since the pilot started in 2022, the hospital has been improving the management system, further unleashing innovative vitality. Since the approval and implementation of the clinical research program, the hospital has initiated 492 research projects and established 9 supporting platform projects, leveraging them to generate as much positive and extensive influence as possible. Good results have been generated successively.

▲Left: Academician Ba Denian of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE); middle: Academician Liu Depei of CAE; right: Academician Zhang Xue of CAE

Academician Ba Denian expressed the hope that PUMCH would match research achievements with standards of national-level awards and the belief that PUMCH was bound to make due contributions to building Healthy China. Academician Liu Depei hoped that PUMCH would further integrate basic and clinical research, translating clinical issues into scientific topics and scientific research findings into measures and approaches that promote clinical prevention, diagnosis, control and treatment and rehabilitation. When commenting on the work reports of the young representatives, Academician Zhang Xue expressed his delight in seeing more and more young people at PUMCH take on important tasks in research projects.

President Zhang Shuyang stated that we must make good use of and effectively implement the clinical research program, and make every effort to promote medical innovation. The interim rally allowed the hospital to review the program’s progress and also gave attendees an opportunity to learn from each other. She also raised the expectation that everyone would identify gaps and clarify objectives, further align their thinking and understanding, define their tasks and responsibilities; truly understand the guidance and requirements from higher-level departments, humbly accept the opinions and suggestions of experts, draw lessons from the success experience of well-performing projects, and strive to achieve key breakthroughs in major projects in 2024.

Vice President Wu Peixin pointed out that PUMCH should target “acute and critical conditions and intractable and rare diseases” and stay at the frontier of scientific and technological innovation, setting sights on critical unmet clinical needs, bottleneck issues, and major technological products. Keeping in mind the key missions, the hospital should take greater initiative in clinical research innovation to develop integrated innovation platforms and drive healthcare undertakings, staying the course to become a strategically important force in healthcare science and technologies. PUMCH should improve its innovation-friendly system building from such angles as platform, resources, talents and policies with the emphasis placed on young talents cultivation to improve its capabilities and competitiveness in innovation. It should also adopt an outcome-oriented approach to project organization and implementation and strengthen process management to yield better results that propel the hospital’s high-quality development.

▲Left: Zhang Yan, Chief of the Division of Health, the Department of Social Security, the Ministry of Finance; right: Liu Guisheng, Chief of the Division of Planning and Assessment, the Department of Health Science, Technology and Education, National Health Commission

Liu Guisheng, Chief of the Division of Planning and Assessment, the Department of Health Science, Technology and Education, National Health Commission, and Zhang Yan, Chief of the Division of Health, the Department of Social Security, the Ministry of Finance, fully acknowledged the achievements made by PUMCH so far and provided suggestions for the next steps of the pilot. Division Chief Liu Guisheng pointed out the need to strengthen policy implementation and take the initiative to promote the high-quality development of clinical research. He emphasized the integration of platforms and systems to establish a collaborative, efficient, and open operating mechanism geared towards the targets. He also drove home the importance of translating and disseminating research outcomes and asked PUMCH to better play its role in driving research innovation and reaching out to community-level healthcare to make healthcare more universally beneficial. Division Chief Zhang Yan emphasized the need to be problem-oriented, focus on targets, and adjust and optimize projects based on evaluations. He highlighted the importance of improving medium and long-term planning, and establishing a collaborative model for clinical research innovation that can serve as a national benchmark. He also accentuated the importance of strengthening team building and talent management, improving high-level talent training systems, enhancing budget execution to keep expenditure in check, standardizing fund management, maintaining financial discipline, and staying performance-oriented to improve fund utilization efficiency.

Four personnel briefed the audience about their project progress: Xu Qiang, a member of Academician Zhao Yupei’s team from the Department of General Surgery, and an outstanding representative of major key projects; Yang Meng, from the Department of Diagnostic Ultrasound, an outstanding representative of key talent grooming projects; Wu Huanwen, from the Department of Pathology, an outstanding representative of specialty improvement projects; Zhang Lu, from the Department of Hematology, an outstanding representative of young talent development projects;

Huang Hui, the Director of the Department of Scientific Research, moderated the meeting. Liu Yuxia, the Deputy Director of the Department of Scientific Research, reported on the progress of the pilot and announced the results of the mid-term performance assessment

Moving forward, PUMCH will focus on improving the research innovation systems, enabling platforms to better support technological innovation, and bringing into full play leading teams and talents to accelerate the translation and application of medical innovation and facilitate the generation of typical research results, among other tasks to be advanced.

Written by Chen Xiao

Photographed by Sun Liang

Edited by Xiao Xiong

Translated by Liu Haiyan

Reviewed by Wang Yao