The Forum was organised by South and Southeast Asia Medical Education and Service Alliance (SSAMESA), China Economic Net (CEN) reported on Wednesday.

The participants exchanged in-depth views on the opportunities and challenges facing the higher medical education and healthcare industry in the post-COVID-19 era.

Titled “New Challenges, New Opportunities, New Cooperation – The Reform and Development of Higher Medical Education and Health Care in the Post-pandemic Era”, the seminar was set to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in higher medical education, medical and health services, public health systems and smart medical construction in the post-epidemic era among medical institutions from South and Southeast Asia.

It is one of the sub-forums of the 2020 Online Forum on Education Cooperation in South & Southeast Asia organized and sponsored by China’s Yunnan Provincial Department of Education.

According to the event organizer and also the SSAMESA secretariat Kunming Medical University (KMU), China, 16 medical experts including Prof. Li Song, President of KMU, China, Prof. Javed Akram, Vice Chancellor of University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore gave speeches on medical personnel training, medical services and COVID-19 prevention and control.

]Yuan Bin, Party Secretary of KMU, said, “The COVID-19 epidemic is a common challenge facing all mankind. Only through solidarity and cooperation can countries overcome the epidemic and promote new progress in medical education and health care.”

Prof. Javed Akram from Pakistan delivered a well-received speech with the theme “Challenges & Opportunities in Medical Education for Health Universities”.

He and other experts had a full exchange on the reform and development of medical education and health care in the post-epidemic era, and put forward opinions and suggestions on promoting regional cooperation in medical education and health care.

SSAMESA, initiated by KMU and Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) in 2019, is a non-government and non-profit international medical institutions consortium joined by 39 medical institutions from 12 countries in the South and Southeast Asia.

It was established to promote exchange and cooperation between medical institutions in China and South and Southeast Asian countries in the fields of medical education, scientific research, medical training and healthcare services.

The Alliance also aims to promote the improvement of regional higher medical education and medical and health services, and make positive contributions to the development of global medical and health care.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Alliance has donated masks, forehead thermometers and other PPEs to some of its members. And an online sharing session on COVID-19 clinical diagnosis and treatment was held with more than 100 medical experts from 13 universities and medical institutions in 7 countries to share their successful experience and practices in epidemic prevention and control and patient treatment.