2020 Sichuan-Israel Online Conference on COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control

On December 15, 2020, the 2020 Sichuan-Israel Online Conference on COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control, co-hosted by Sichuan International Medical Exchange & Promotion Association (SCIMEA), the Consulate General of Israel in Chengdu, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sheba Medical Center of Israel, and Economic and Trade Mission of Israel to Southwest China, was successfully held in Chengdu. The conference was highly supported by the governments, hospital directors & experts, and health care enterprises from both Sichuan and Israel.

The meeting was presided over by Ms. Zhang Mengfan, Secretary-General of SCIMEA, and was held in a fashion combining offline venue and online video links with guests. At the beginning of the conference, Mr. Ran Peleg, Consul General of Israel in Chengdu, Mr. Zeng Huajun, member of the Party Leadership Group of Health Commission of Sichuan Province & Full-time Deputy Director of the Office of Healthcare Commission of Sichuan Province, Prof. Arnon Afek, Associate Director General of Sheba Medical Center, and Prof. Zhang Wei, Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, delivered speeches respectively. Subsequently, Prof. Cheng Nansheng, Vice President of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Prof. Luo Fengming, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Hospital, Prof. Kang Yan, Director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine of West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Prof. Tang Hong, Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, Prof. Eyal Leshem, Director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Dr. Gad Segal, Head of Corona Department I, and Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation Officer of Sheba Medical Center, successively shared their valuable experiences and innovative technologies in prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment under the epidemic situation with the participating experts. During the meeting, West China Hospital, Sichuan University and Sheba Medical Center of Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) online, which is the result of the exchange of high-level visits between the two sides, aiming to demonstrate the bright vision of Sichuan-Israel medical and health collaboration and jointly promote the close coordination and development between the medical and health industries of both parties.

This MOU marks the official, comprehensive cooperation between Israel’s top-ranked Sherpa Hospital and a Chinese hospital. The two parties will, based on a sister hospital, carry out all-round cooperation in medical services, medical education and medical research. Currently, the two parties intend to start their cooperation in the fields of rehabilitation, nursing, trauma, emergency medicine, clinical skills training, technology transfer, and oncology.

Mr. Ran Peleg, Consul General of Israel in Chengdu

Mr. Zeng Huajun, member of the Party Leadership Group of Health Commission of Sichuan Province & Full-time Deputy Director of the Office of Healthcare Commission of Sichuan Province

Prof. Arnon Afek, Associate Director General of Sheba Medical Center

Prof. Zhang Wei, Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Prof. Cheng Nansheng, Vice President of West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Prof. Luo Fengming, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of West China Hospital

Prof. Kang Yan, Director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Prof. Tang Hong, Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases, West China Hospital, Sichuan University

Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation Officer, Sheba Medical Center of Israel

Dr. Gad Segal, Head of Internal Medicine and Head of Corona Department I, Sheba Medical Center of Israel

Prof. Eyal Leshem, Director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Sheba Medical Center of Israel

Ms. Zhang Mengfan, Secretary-General of Sichuan International Medical Exchange & Promotion Association

At this moment, the world is witnessing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are facing an extremely serious situation for global prevention and control. The conference aims to share the valuable experience accumulated by China in dealing with the epidemic for Israeli and the other epidemic control organizations in the world. During the conference, experts from both sides exchanged academic views on topics such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the prevention and control of respiratory infectious diseases.

West China Hospital, Sichuan University is a large comprehensive Grade-A tertiary hospital integrating medical education and research in China. It has 4,300 beds and has been ranked second for eleven consecutive years in the list of best hospitals in China, while topping the list of scientific and technological influence in China for seven consecutive years, and is currently ranked first in China and 26th in the world by Nature Index. Committed to public responsibility of large public hospitals, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital has sent more than 290 experts to Wuhan, Xinjiang and other places to provide assistance, dispatched teams of experts to Italy, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Azerbaijan and other countries, and got in touch with experts from the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and other countries through the Internet, making outstanding contributions to the pandemic prevention and control.

Sheba Medical Center is the top-ranked hospital in Israel, the largest medical institution in both Israel and the Middle East, one of the four largest cancer centers in the world, and one of the top 10 best hospitals in the world by Newsweek in 2019. In this event, Prof. Arnon Afek, Associate Director General of Sheba Medical Center, Prof. Eyal Leshem, Director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Dr. Gad Segal, Head of Corona Department I, Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Chief Innovation Officer, and other top medical experts from Israel participated in the exchange.

Medical experts and professors from both Sichuan and Israel gathered together to give keynote speeches and share experiences on six different topics under the theme of this conference. This event was also largely supported by Chengdu Easton Biopharmaceutics Co., Ltd., a high-tech enterprise founded in 2009 integrating R&D, production and sales of chemical APIs and high-end preparations and biological preparations. The company has always been patient-centered and clinical demand-oriented, and is committed to the R&D and industrialization of innovative drugs, biologics and high-end generics in the fields of anesthesia and analgesia, angiocarpy, oncology, pediatrics, diabetes and other major diseases. In addition, experts from Sichuan and Israel also had in-depth discussions on international respiratory training and academic exchange activities.