XI’AN (TDI): At a logistics hub in Xi’an, a city known for sending freight trains loaded with premium goods across Eurasia, Syed Mustafa Kamal from Pakistan was imagining a different kind of treasure; medical expertise and innovation.
Kamal, the Health Minister of Pakistan, was there to visit the International Land Port Hospital under the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, on April 28, 2025.
In the neurology department, Kamal tested a brain-computer interface (BCI) system, wearing a brainwave-sensing headband and a robotic glove. As he focused, a virtual hand on a screen moved, catching butterflies and flipping eggs, driven purely by thought.
“Phenomenal,” Kamal said repeatedly during his tour, which also took him to the sunlit outpatient halls, 5G ambulances and advanced surgical instruments.
“This is why Pakistan is eager to deepen healthcare cooperation with China,” Kamal said. “We hope these outstanding practices can take root in our own health system.”
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The official’s hospital tour was a side event of the eighth Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Health Ministers’ Meeting held in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on April 28, Monday.
Senior health officials from member states and dialogue partners of the SCO, an organization that spans over half of Eurasia and represents nearly half the world’s population, gathered to discuss deepening collaboration to address global public health challenges.
At the heart of Monday’s meeting was a shared commitment to bolstering emergency response systems, expanding access to primary healthcare, embracing digital technologies, and advancing the development of traditional medicine across the SCO community.
Kamal proposed creating a digital health alliance within the SCO to share medical technologies based on big data and artificial intelligence. He also called for infrastructure development, especially in underserved areas.
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As rotating president of the SCO in 2024-2025, China has designated this year as the “SCO Year of Sustainable Development.”
Health partnerships within the SCO are making headway. Since 2022, China has sent medical teams to conduct over 2,100 free cataract surgeries in SCO countries and established blindness prevention centers in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, with another planned in Tajikistan.
Beyond clinical efforts, structural platforms are taking shape. The China-SCO Emergency Medical Center, the SCO Hospital Cooperation Alliance, and the Traditional Medicine Forum are now in place to boost cross-border capacity building.
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