“China and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries urgently need to work together to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations General Assembly’s ‘Vision for Everyone’ through scientific innovation and digital medical care, providing safer, accurate, efficient, and quality medical services for everyone,” said Professor Lin Haotian, Director of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University (ZOC), in the opening speech at an ophthalmic forum, “Together Being Lighthouse (TBL),” on November 25 in Guangzhou.

At the conference (Photo provided to GDToday)

The forum was hosted by ZOC, which helped the Afro-Asian Council of Ophthalmology Asia Office (AACO-AO) and the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Eye Care and Vision settle in Guangzhou.

ZOC introduced the “Together Being Lighthouse” initiative, aiming to provide global ophthalmic healthcare through new digital technologies with fellow ophthalmologists during the event, attracting about 400 well-known and top ophthalmic experts from China and BRI partner countries and regions to gather global wisdom and share academic results.

“AACO has organized 20 conferences, which promoted the development of modern ophthalmology in Asian and African countries since 1958. We will fully discuss the future development plan of AACO during the event,” said Professor Wu Lezheng, Chairman of AACO.

Professor Tarek Mamoun, Secretary General of AACO, said, “Guangdong has great advantages in promoting global ophthalmic cooperation due to its abundant research resources at ZOC. Although ZOC has sent medical teams to Africa for the past 65 years, it still lacks medical resources. To help more people worldwide, the cooperation between AACO and ZOC will mainly focus on artificial intelligence diagnosis and telemedicine, which will allow technology to expand the range of our medical services.”

Wang Manli, Director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, said, “I hope ZOC and AACO make full use of the advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) medical, scientific and technological resources on developing innovative research and academic exchanges, and provide better technology for national ophthalmic medical services.”

Link to the report: https://www.newsgd.com/node_99363c4f3b/bbdb3a303e.shtml