On March 28th, Kurt Newman, President of Children’s National Health System of the United States, together with his delegation visited BUCM and signed a memorandum of cooperation. Present at the signing ceremony were Wang Xiaopin, Director of International Department, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM), Lu Yexin, Director of Asia-America Multilateral Division, International Department, SATCM, Song Zhihang, Project Manager of Division of American and Australasian Affairs, Bureau of International Cooperation, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Xu Anlong, BUCM President, and Zhang Liping, BUCM Presidential Assistant & Executive Vice Dean of Graduate School, and heads of relevant BUCM administrative departments and affiliated hospitals.

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　　At the meeting, Director Wang Xiaopin delivered a speech. She warmly congratulated the two sides on signing the memorandum and gave three suggestions for future cooperation. Firstly, the cooperation should fit into and serve the overall Sino-US cooperation. Since China and the United States share common goals in many areas including health promotion and improvement, the two sides should take advantage of this solid foundation for exchange and mutual trust to benefit the overall bilateral exchange and cooperation between the two countries. Secondly, the cooperation should be carried out in a practical way. The memorandum marks the starting point of a new journey. It is hoped that the first pediatric department of integrated Chinese and Western medicine will be established in the United States as soon as possible to promote relevant training, clinical practice and research. Thirdly, the cooperation should be able to develop in a quality and sustainable way. Cooperative plans should be designed and implemented at a high level with high quality. They should aim to solve problems in clinical practice and scientific research, so as to make an intellectual contribution to the global medical community.

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　　President Xu Anlong was inspired by the cooperation between BUCM and Children’s National. He sincerely thanked President Kurt Newman for his outstanding leadership and far-sighted decision-making power. The cooperation was based on the hospital’s advocacy of TCM, its confidence in the treatment of childhood diseases with TCM, and its constant pursuit of improved therapies. He also expressed gratitude to SATCM and NSFC for their support for BUCM in the training of young talents, scientific research and innovation, and international exchange and cooperation. Lastly, he thanked relevant BCUM departments, affiliated hospitals and colleagues from BUCM US Center for Chinese Medicine, because without their joint effort it is impossible to settle the cooperation.

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　　He further suggested that BUCM and Children’s National Health System of the United States should make full use of various resources to deepen their cooperation in the following four areas. Firstly, the two sides should jointly promote innovative researches on therapies by finding new ways and ideas to solve medical problems. For example, the advantages of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine could be combined to relieve children’s pain in faster, cheaper and simpler ways. Secondly, the two should work together to promote cooperation in scientific research, constantly seeking scientific evidence and theories to enunciate the respective strengths. Thirdly, public education should be promoted so that more Americans can understand Chinese medicine. For instance, basic knowledge of Chinese medicine can be further disseminated through the overseas platform of BUCM Center of Chinese Medicine in US. Lastly, the two sides should train their younger generation of pediatricians together so that they can master more scientific and efficient therapies of both medical systems to treat childhood diseases.

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　　President Kurt Newman said that the cooperation between the two sides, as a new starting point, laid the foundation for more cooperation in medical care, education and research. He hoped that through the cooperation we could cure more childhood diseases, bringing hope to more families.

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　　Subsequently, President Xu Anlong signed a memorandum of cooperation with President Kurt Newman. Also, a memorandum of cooperative project was signed by Hu Kaiwen, Director of BUCM Institute of Oncology and Vice President of Dongfang Hospital affiliated to BUCM, and Xiaoyan Song, Director of the Infection Control/Epidemiology at Children’s National Health System of the United States.

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　　Subsequently, President Kurt Newman and his delegation made academic exchanges with the BUCM counterparts on the development of pediatric medicine in the United States. They also visited the Museum of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Chinese Medicine Culture Center, Chinese Language International Promotion (Beijing), thus learning firsthand the history and development of traditional Chinese culture and medicine.

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　　In the future, BUCM will continue to cooperate with Children’s National Health System of the United States, focusing on Chinese and Western medical care, education and training, scholar exchange, scientific research and product development based on the important platform of BUCM Center for Chinese Medicine in the US.