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INTERNATIONAL MEDICINE American, Chinese Physicians Look Past Politics to June Conference While tensions between the U.S. and China have played out in the political arena, many professional relationships have remained unruffled. Dean Joseph Martin and several HMS faculty members from Harvard Medical International visited China in early April to meet with health care leaders. During that trip, Martin received an honorary professorship from the Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, one of China's premier medical schools. Founded in 1917 by the Rockefeller Foundation, it has a longstanding relationship with HMS. Drs. Martin and Crone speak with Dr. Lu Chongmei, president of the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, at the entrance to the College. Photo by Amanda J. Pullen Martin also talked with members of the Chinese Medical Association, including its president and China's minister of health, Zhang Wenkang. The meeting provided an opportunity for the leaders to get to know one another before cochairing a conference June 24 to 29, which will bring 600 high-level Chinese physicians and health care leaders to Boston. "The warm welcome we received from our Chinese colleagues clearly shows that in spite of any political tensions between our two countries, China's medical leaders are extremely enthusiastic, as we are, about strengthening our ties and broadening our opportunities to learn about—and learn from—one another's medical systems and practices," Martin said. The upcoming conference will include presentations broadly defining health care institutions in both countries. The two systems have very different structures: the U.S. health care system is highly diffuse, while China's is centralized, with the ministry of health presiding over medical education, public health, clinical practice, and research. But there are areas of common interest. China is making changes that reflect the American system, such as opening the doors to private medical practice and privatizing health insurance. At the same time, physicians and insurers in the U.S. face a growing interest in complementary and alternative medicine, which in China is integrated into the medical system. The conference will encourage participants to make connections that will fuel future exchanges. Roman Xu, one of the conference organizers from the Chinese Medical Association's Department of Foreign Relations, says, "The differences in culture and the medical and educational systems can create considerable misunderstanding. The meeting will work to maximize mutual understanding, cultural and professional." —Courtney Humphries