On April 28, the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Guangdong Province (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) was officially released广东省人民政府.

The full text of the Outline is approximately 110,000 words, consisting of 21 chapters. It puts forward eight major goals for Guangdong’s development over the next five years, including achieving remarkable results in high-quality development across the province, significantly improving the level of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, achieving more coordinated development between urban and rural areas and among regions, and making new breakthroughs in further comprehensively deepening reform, among others.

The following is an excerpt related to healthcare and biomedicine:

Chapter 16 Implement the Strategy of Giving Priority to Health and Solidly Advance the Construction of a Healthy Guangdong

Centered on safeguarding people’s life safety and physical health, we will improve the policy and institutional system for health promotion, drive the shift from focusing on treating diseases to focusing on health, provide fair, accessible, systematic and continuous health services for the people, and achieve a higher level of universal health.

Section 1 Improve the Public Health System

We will strengthen public health capabilities, enhance the construction of the disease prevention and control (CDC) system, comprehensively elevate the level of public health and medical treatment, promote social co-governance, coordination and integration between medical treatment and disease prevention, and increase life expectancy and people’s health.

• Build a solid line of defense for disease prevention and control. Advance the construction of a modern CDC system, enhance capabilities in infectious disease monitoring, early warning and epidemiological investigation, accelerate the development of national and provincial regional public health centers, implement the action to strengthen core capabilities of county-level CDC institutions, comprehensively improve professional capabilities in disease prevention and control, and establish a sound disease prevention and control network that is urban-rural integrated, vertically linked and fully functional. Accelerate the application and development of artificial intelligence in the CDC field, and improve the CDC scientific research and innovation system. Strengthen the CDC functions of medical institutions, enhance the infectious disease prevention and control capabilities of medical institutions and specialized disease prevention and treatment institutions, improve the joint prevention and control mechanism for public health, and strengthen the construction of public health committees of village (community) residents’ committees. Promote joint prevention and control of infectious diseases in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, deepen international exchanges and cooperation, and enhance the comprehensive effectiveness of multi-disease prevention.

• Improve the emergency medical rescue network. Perfect a unified and efficient medical emergency command system, build a five-level medical emergency command and dispatch system, realize integrated management of emergency medical information, and boost emergency response capabilities. Establish a hierarchical, layered and shunted major epidemic treatment mechanism, and build a grassroots emergency network that is fully covered, responsive and highly coordinated. Advance the construction of national emergency medical rescue bases, national major epidemic treatment bases and provincial-level bases, improve the public health laboratory network, strengthen the professional capabilities of provincial key epidemic treatment teams, and achieve full coverage of provincial emergency medical rescue teams in all prefecture-level cities. Comprehensively improve emergency and first-aid capabilities, improve the peacetime-emergency transition mechanism, strengthen blood supply guarantees, and continuously improve the public health emergency material reserve system that combines social and professional reserves. Explore low-altitude rescue and maritime medical emergency services, and create application scenarios for emergency rescue.

• Enhance prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and management service capabilities. Continue to strengthen comprehensive prevention and control of infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis, chronic diseases, and prevention and treatment of rare diseases, optimize the benefit-oriented vaccination services, consolidate achievements in the prevention and control of key parasitic diseases and endemic diseases, improve the early screening, diagnosis and treatment system, and reduce the premature mortality rate of major chronic diseases to below 10%. Standardize medical and health security for major events, and strengthen occupational health, radiological health and food safety risk assessment. Give full play to the unique advantages of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and epidemic prevention and control, and optimize the TCM “preventive treatment” service system. Popularize healthy lifestyles, strengthen mental health services, and improve the mental health of the whole population. Strengthen comprehensive intervention on health-influencing factors, build a healthy environment, carry out in-depth patriotic health campaigns, implement the reasonable diet action and national nutrition plan, and continue to carry out healthy weight management actions.

Section 2 Build a High-Quality and Balanced Medical and Health Service System

We will promote the expansion and downward shift of high-quality medical resources and their balanced regional distribution, improve grassroots medical service capabilities, fulfill responsibilities for comprehensively deepening the reform of the medical and health system, and comprehensively improve the medical and health service system.

• Build a high-level medical hub. Optimize the functional positioning and layout of medical institutions, enhance the radiation-driven role of national medical centers, leverage the main role of prefecture-level hospitals in regional medical treatment, and build a high-level hospital system featuring “top-tier leadership and support from top 100 hospitals”. Strive for the layout and construction of major platforms such as national key laboratories, and strengthen the integrated functions of high-level hospitals in clinical diagnosis and treatment, scientific research transformation and talent cultivation. Explore the development of international medical services and cultivate influential international medical service brands. Focusing on areas with high disease incidence among Guangdong’s population, relying on seven international medical centers [the International Medical Center for Respiratory Diseases (The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University), the International Medical Center for Kidney Diseases (Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University), the International Medical Center for Oncology (Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center), the International Medical Center for Precision Medicine (The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University), the International Medical Center for Cardiovascular Diseases (Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital), the International Medical Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine (Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine), and the International Medical Center for Breast Diseases (Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University)], we will build a number of specialized discipline clusters with Guangdong’s characteristics and advantages. Link up with high-quality medical resources in Hong Kong and Macao, accelerate the clinical application and transformation of internationally advanced drugs and medical devices, and improve the mechanism for regional medical resource collaboration and achievement transformation and sharing.

• Consolidate grassroots medical and health services. Optimize the layout of medical and health institutions, and strengthen operational guarantees for county, district and grassroots medical and health institutions. Implement the project to strengthen grassroots medical and health services, promote the upgrading of county-level hospitals and key central township health centers, increase the proportion of visits to grassroots medical and health institutions, rationally expand the variety of drugs available, and raise the rate of rural residents seeking medical treatment within their counties. Deepen the reform of close-knit county-level medical consortia, urban medical groups and integrated rural and urban medical and health institutions, fully establish a mobile medical service system, and promote resource sharing, institutional linkage, information exchange and service connection. Strengthen grassroots team building, improve the two-way talent flow mechanism among members of close-knit medical consortia, promote the transformation of rural doctors into licensed (assistant) physicians, and implement special programs such as capacity improvement for grassroots medical and health talents and college student rural doctors. Promote the development of family doctor contract services.

• Continue to deepen the reform of the medical and health system. Improve the overall promotion mechanism for building a strong province in health, establish a coordinated development and governance mechanism for medical treatment, medical insurance and pharmaceuticals, and accelerate the construction of a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system focusing on grassroots services. Deepen reforms of public hospitals in terms of staffing, service prices, salary systems and comprehensive supervision guided by public welfare, and promote ward renovation and medical equipment renewal in hospitals. Implement the critical action for digital and intelligent transformation of health care, strengthen the empowerment of artificial intelligence in medical and health services, build an integrated health service platform that covers the whole population, connects the whole region and is shared and convenient, and promote the mutual recognition and sharing of inspection and test results. Improve the TCM service system, perfect the mechanism for TCM inheritance and innovation, develop integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine services, advance the construction of a national comprehensive reform demonstration zone for TCM, and build a strong province in TCM. Standardize the escort-free care services in medical institutions to meet diversified medical and nursing service demands. Guide and standardize the development of private hospitals.

Section 3 Develop the Biomedicine Industry Oriented to People’s Life and Health

Based on the advantages of the biomedicine industry, we will deeply cultivate new tracks such as gene technology, synthetic biology and nuclear medicine, improve the health service supply system, and promote the deep integration of industrial development and health care.

• Consolidate and upgrade advantageous fields in biomedicine. Systematically arrange a full-chain support system for innovative drugs and medical devices, and accelerate the construction of a full-cycle innovation ecosystem covering basic research, clinical trials, achievement transformation and industrialization. Support enterprises to make early layout in subdivided varieties such as high-end generic drugs, first generic drugs and difficult-to-copy drugs to ensure the accessibility and safety of clinical medications. Accelerate the high-end and domestic production of medical devices, focus on clinical diagnosis and treatment needs, and vigorously develop key industries such as high-end in vitro diagnostic equipment or reagents, life monitoring and support equipment, and medical imaging equipment. Jointly build a number of proof-of-concept centers and pilot platforms for the transformation of biomedical scientific and technological achievements at the provincial and municipal levels, and focus on promoting the efficient transformation and utilization of scientific and technological achievements from research institutes and medical and health institutions. Strengthen the introduction and cultivation of specialized institutions such as CRO (Contract Research Organization) and CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization), and support qualified Grade-A tertiary medical and health institutions to standardly carry out clinical research and transformation of new biomedical technologies. Adhere to the direction of cluster-based and characteristic development, and accelerate the construction of a biomedicine industrial cluster with reasonable layout and distinctive features.

• Accelerate the layout of new tracks for innovative drugs and medical devices. Concentrate resources to develop key subdivided fields such as hospital preparations, cell and gene therapy, medical robots, marine biomedicine, TCM medical devices, pediatric drugs and rehabilitation aids, providing new approaches for the treatment of difficult and severe diseases and health security. Strengthen the R&D and production of new target, new mechanism and new type radiopharmaceuticals, accelerate the development of high-end nuclear medical equipment such as proton therapy and heavy ion therapy, and plan to build internationally advanced medical isotope experimental production facilities. Relying on cutting-edge technologies such as synthetic biology, carry out core technology research on organoids, xenotransplantation and organ chips. Make full use of generative artificial intelligence, deep learning and other technologies to conduct analytical research in multiple fields such as new drug design and screening, and recombinant antibody design and synthesis. Focus on diseases with a large patient base such as chronic diseases and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as emerging incremental market demands such as medical cosmetology and weight management, carry out R&D and industrialization of new innovative drugs.

• Polish the golden signboard of Southern Medicine in the New Era. Give full play to the characteristics and advantages of Lingnan TCM, promote TCM scientific and technological innovation, improve the quality of traditional Chinese medicine, and strengthen and expand the TCM industry. Strengthen the protection and utilization of TCM resources, accelerate the construction of centralized production bases for raw materials and standardized planting and breeding bases for Chinese medicinal materials, and comprehensively consolidate the upstream supply capacity of the industrial chain. Promote the R&D of in-hospital TCM preparations and the transformation of achievements from classic prescriptions, popularize new dosage forms with clinical application advantages, and expand the application of TCM in non-TCM medical institutions. Extend the “TCM +” industrial chain, enrich the supply of health products such as “medicine and food homology”, and meet the diversified health needs of the people. Promote the publicity and education of TCM culture, and create Lingnan TCM cultural products. Build a national TCM service export base, and promote international exchanges and cooperation in TCM.

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Source | Guangdong Provincial People’s Government Portal, Nanfang+ Client