Peking University Health Science Center & McGill University Faculty of Medicine First Joint Symposium on Primary Health Care was convened in November 20 in Beijing. The symposium, which was themed “Learning from Each Other: from Policy to Action”, was organized by the PKU China Center for Health Development Studies, and saw an audience of over a hundred people from the National Health Commission, World Health Organization, World Bank, China Medical Board, as well as medical schools in 11 provinces around the country.

　　Canadian Ambassador to China, H.E. John McCallum, was present at the opening ceremony and addressed the audience.

On behalf of her institution, Vice-Principal Martha Crago of Research and Innovation at McGill University expressed strong interest in deepening cooperation with the PUHSC and suggested that the next symposium be held in Montreal. After the symposium, an MoU on cooperation was signed between PUHSC and McGill University Faculty of Medicine.

As a cornerstone to the delivery of primary health care, training of general practitioners was one of the key topics at the symposium. It was suggested at the symposium that China has made tremendous progress in the training of GPs but needs to continue to work on the pedagogy. It was believed that shifted focus toward general practice could be achieved through the design of medical education system.