The minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Li Bin, met with the chairman of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, Li Guodong, in Beijing on Sept 4, to discuss the training of specialized physicians training and how to handle emergent cases, with Li explaining that the Commission has been working on a specialized physicians training system and guidelines since 2013.

She went on to say, “The mainland has had some specialized physician training since 2006 and the Health Ministry signed an MOU on a pilot project with the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, sometime in the past. Now, its immediate response to newly emerging cases, such as during the Nepali earthquake or the Ebola epidemic are beginning to show the success of its case handling,” but that she hopes the mainland and Hong Kong can increase cooperation in specialized physician training and emerging case handling.

The Hong Kong Academy of Medicine was established in 1991 as an independent institution with the power to organize, assess and accredit medical specialists and to oversee continuing medical education and Hong Kong has gotten WHO help in establishing the world’s first disaster response center and says it expects to cooperate more with the Commission.

Taking part in the meeting were heads of the Commission’s Health Science, Technology and Education departments and the Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Affairs office.