2020 Tencent Medical Enlightenment Summit: Popularizing Science to Overcome Challenges

SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tencent Medical Enlightenment Summit is online today with the theme of "'The Pain." It has brought together top medical leaders and scientists from around the world to share with the public the latest cutting-edge research results in medical fields such as the coronavirus, infectious diseases, cancer, depression, and reproductive medicine. Jointly organized by Tencent Medical, the world's top medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, and its exclusively licensed Chinese digital media partner, NEJM Frontiers of Medicine, the conference aims to enhance science popularization by exploring how internet technology can be leveraged to address the public's pain points in learning more about medical science.

Dowson Tong, senior executive vice president of Tencent Group and president of the Cloud and Smart Industry Group, expressed, "We believe that technology should be used for good and combined with medicine to help eliminate human's greatest pain points. We aim to use science and technology in tandem to help everyone better evaluate, manage and improve their health."

Zhong Nanshan, professor at Guangzhou Medical University and director of the National Center for Clinical Medicine for Respiratory Diseases, saying in his message to this summit: "Mr. Ma Huateng said, the task of the Internet is to solve the user's pain points. This is akin to the core mission of medicine, which aims to tackle the most fundamental pain point for any human: physical ailments and diseases."

The conference also invited Eric Rubin, editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Ge Dubo, Director of Cardiology at Sun Yat-sen Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, Huang Hufeng, Director of the Key Laboratory of Embryology-based Diseases in Shanghai, Lu Lin, Director of the National Center for Clinical Medicine of Mental Disorders, Professor Cai Sanjun, Director of Intestinal Surgery at Fudan University-affiliated Oncology Hospital, Professor Peng Baoxuan, Director of Spinal Surgery at the Third Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital, and Professor Peng Baoxuan, Director of Spinal Surgery at Fudan University Hospital, and Mr. Huang Lei, Vice President of Tencent Healthcare. These leading medical professionals, scientists and researchers also shared about the latest groundbreaking findings and technological breakthroughs in their respective fields.

Top Medical Experts Focus on the Coronavirus

In view of the still severe epidemic situation, the guests shared the prevention and control experience and trend analysis. Zhong Nanshan pointed out, one of the biggest success points of this epidemic prevention, or a pain point of this epidemic prevention, is thanks in large part to the world's strong investment in various domains of medical science as well as our community's joint prevention and control strategy that we managed to quickly contain the outbreak. He highly recognized the value of science and technology in the epidemic situation: "AI, big data, 5G and Internet have given us great help in epidemic prediction, vaccine development and disease diagnosis. Cutting edge technology is a transformative force to promote the development of medicine in the future. "

Thus far, the development of vaccines and therapeutic drugs has become one of the most important concerns of the international medical community and public. Eric Rubin, an infectious disease expert and editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal, expressed that vaccine manufacturing is a long and complex process. Although there are promising advancements in utilizing DNA and adenovirus to develop a vaccine, further clinical trials are required to better assess if they are effective and safe for human consumption. However, he is confident that a successful vaccine will be available in the near future. "Developing a vaccine usually takes more than a decade, so the fact that we were able to condense what usually takes years into months is a major victory," he said.

Tencent Medipedia Announced Three Plans for the Internet Medical Science Popularization 3.0

According to the 2020 Public Health Behavior Insight Report, co-produced by Tencent Medipedia and Ipsos Healthcare, 42% of the public considered immunity to be the most important health marker, 67% said they are more willing to vaccinate themselves after the Covid-19 outbreak, and 76% said that if they feel unwell, they will take proactive action, such as getting a medical examination, searching for information online, and consuming medication. Not only is the public more frequently and proactively seeking authoritative medical information, they have also raised their demand for more accessible and practical content.

"The pandemic is a disaster, when more doctors invest in science popularization, more people pay attention to science popularization, and more platforms spread science popularization, it is also a general education course." Huang Lei, vice president of Tencent Medical, believes that internet of medical science popularization has now ushered in the 3.0 era: reshape the connection of science popularization by means of social and scenario communication, and reconstruct the "person & content & scene" of science popularization, so that the production, dissemination and form of knowledge are more open and diversified.

To this end, Tencent Medipedia announced three programs at ME Summit, including Medical Science Popularization Officers Program, Public Science Popularization Officers Program and Open Content Program, aimed to enhance science popularization and promote the dissemination of high-quality medical science content to the public.

As part of Tencent Science Week, ME Summit is the embodiment of Tencent's mission of "Tech for Good". As Mr. Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, once said, "Tencent Science Week hopes to make scientists the focus of the spotlight; let scientific exploration become the pursuit of the public, especially young people; and make scientific research a new fashion." And the original intention of Tencent ME Summit is, "hope to attract more people to pay attention to life and cognition of self, improve public health through authoritative medical science popularization, reduce pain and suffering."

SOURCE Tencent