Abstract

In a roundtable discussion with Eric. J. Rubin, the Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Prof. Haipeng Xiao, the Executive Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University and President of The First Affiliated Hospital at Sun Yat-sen University, and Prof. Fan Wang, the Vice Chairperson for Sun Yat-sen University discuss the importance of transforming health care management practices and creating future leaders to improve care delivery at the regional level and national level in China. A lot of challenges Chinese health care, including at the strategy level, are due to a lack of investment in ensuring all hospitals have what they need to serve patients. The speakers share why each of them became interested in health care management, stress the importance of international collaboration, and describe how changes at the regional level inform policy at the national level and vice versa. They provide examples of how artificial intelligence can help increase health care efficiency and improve accessibility and equity, and how synthesizing big data can improve patient care. The speakers also describe the approaches of two health care management training programs, one for students and one for professionals.

Introduction

Both leaders stress how changes at the regional level inform policy at the national level and vice versa, and the influence of international collaboration. If you want to establish first-class health care in your region, international collaboration on health care management practices is key, they say, with talent innovation, scientific innovation, and education rolled into one. To cope with global health challenges, such as pandemics, clinicians need collaboration in rigorous clinical competency, research ability, teaching ability, and leadership.

Artificial intelligence is and will play an important role in health care management. According to the speakers, a lot of challenges in the health care industry in China, including at the strategy level, are because there is not enough investment in ensuring all hospitals have what they need to serve patients. At the organizational structure and operational levels, AI can help link data together, improving integration and access. With optimized big data at hand, health care leaders can be better equipped manage their industry and can use that data to train medical students and practicing clinicians.

Obtaining good data requires strong cooperation in supplying data, which China has: Approximately 30,000 hospitals’ data is available to help inform health policy at the national government and regional levels and to make population health and individual patient predictions (e.g., cancer risk). The language of medicine is global, and it is important to share medical data with underdeveloped areas. AI can help increase efficiency in the face of global health care staff shortages and improve accessibility and equity, as long as it is used ethically. Pairing home and hospital care with AI can, for example, help with ER triage, and synthesize results of data that otherwise cannot be shared individually due to privacy concerns. As is often quoted, those doctors who do not understand AI will be replaced by those who do, so it’s important to add AI to medical training. For doctors to work with AI in the hospital, data collection is the first step, followed by aggregation and collaboration.

Haipeng Xiao and Fan Wang each describe more about their respective health care management training programs and their goal to create future leaders and improve existing leaders, with different approaches for training students and professionals. The programs’ methodology uses a leadership model and employs different tactics for strategy issues, customer behavior issues, process innovation, change management, and AI. For medical students, leadership courses are taught not just in the classroom, but in practice within the real hospital environment. Students are asked to bring leadership challenges they have experienced, and the students work together as a team to resolve these challenges and are assessed on management of the solutions. Those who are already health care leaders are sent to Havard Medical School for a month to learn on the job there and bring their experiences back to influence health care in their own institutions. In both programs, management and leadership are deliberately interspersed with the medical and clinical side.

Participant Biographies

Haipeng Xiao, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), and President, The First Affiliated Hospital, SYSU

Dr. Haipeng Xiao is a Professor of Medicine and Doctoral Supervisor awarded Special Allowance by the State Council, and Member of the Discipline Assessment Group, Academic Degree Commission of the State Council. He is Executive Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University, President of The First Affiliated Hospital, SYSU, and Chief Consultant of Endocrinology. Dr. Xiao also serves as Vice President, China Endocrine and Metabolism Association, Chinese Medical Doctors Association, and Vice Chairman, Guangdong Medical Association.

Dr. Xiao has led a number of research projects funded by National Natural Science Foundation and grants of Ministry or Provincial levels. His academic findings have been published in key international journals such as BMJ, Lancet Digital Health, Cell Research, Thyroid, JCEM, Diabetology, Molecular Therapy, etc.

Fan Wang, PhD, Vice President of Sun Yat-sen University, and Professor, School of Business, SYSU

Professor Fan Wang is the Director of the Ministry of Education Philosophy and Social Sciences Laboratory of Big Data Driven Management Behaviors and Decision Making. He has been a professor at the School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) since 2006, where he also served as Chair of the Department of Management Science (2006–2008), Deputy Dean (2008–2016), and Dean (2016–2023).

In 2012, he was awarded the Distinguished Young Scholars Fund by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). He completed his Bachelor to PhD studies in Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University (1993–2002) and went on to work as a Research Staff Member at IBM Research Lab (Beijing). Through the Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents, he became a Visiting Scholar at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2003.

Eric J. Rubin, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM Group; Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Professor, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Eric J. Rubin, MD, PhD, joined the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and NEJM Group as Editor-in-Chief in September 2019, taking on the responsibility for oversight of all editorial content and policies.

Dr. Rubin is an Associate Physician specializing in infectious disease at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves on several scientific advisory boards to groups interested in infectious disease therapeutics. Dr. Rubin has also previously served as the Associate Editor for Infectious Disease at the New England Journal of Medicine as well as an editor for several basic science journals including PLoS Pathogens, Tuberculosis, and mBio.