Xi’an (TDI): Telehealth, powered by advances in information technology, came into sharp focus as health leaders gathered in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, to discuss hospital collaboration among member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), on April 27, 2025.
The seventh SCO Hospital Cooperation Conference, held in the lead-up to the eighth SCO Health Ministers’ Meeting on April 28, brought together more than 100 representatives from government health authorities, medical associations, and healthcare institutions.
Attendees called for greater efforts to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and other technological advances to strengthen telemedicine and smart healthcare services across SCO member states, in support of the broader goal of building a shared health community within the organization.
Geographic barriers remain among the greatest challenges to healthcare provision in many SCO member states, where vast territories and low population densities often hinder access to medical services. This reality underscores the critical role of telemedicine in bridging health gaps, said Muhammad Ashraf Nizami, President of the Pakistan Medical Association (Lahore).
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Nizami praised China’s leadership in developing domestic telehealth systems and its efforts to share expertise and resources with SCO member countries, including Pakistan.
A highlight of the conference was the signing of a tripartite cooperation agreement among Tianjin First Central Hospital, the Management Office of the Tianjin Medical Association, and Pakistan Medical Association. The agreement aims to deepen public health cooperation in telemedicine and related fields.
Wang Xudong, head of the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, hailed the agreement as a new chapter in healthcare collaboration between Tianjin and SCO countries. “We are confident that this new partnership will produce transferable best practices for broader cooperation in the future,” the official said.
Wang also said that Tianjin, which will host an SCO summit this autumn, is aligning its policies and institutional frameworks to support comprehensive healthcare partnerships across the organization.
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“We are spearheading the development of replicable models for cross-border healthcare, integrating telemedicine into clinical practice, traditional medicine systems, and public health management,” he said.
The conference also witnessed the signing of four additional cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between Chinese hospitals and universities and their counterparts in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.
The University Medical Center of Nazarbayev University signed an MoU with the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University to collaborate on research, clinical knowledge-sharing, and healthcare workforce development, with a focus on oncology, chronic disease management, and maternal and child health.
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