The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital assists in virus testing at the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The joint-effort of coronavirus controlling marks a milestone for the strengthening of cross-boundary collaboration in medical care throughout the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Medical pundits are at pains to argue that closer integration, far from being a zero-sum game, will turn the page in the industry, spawning benefits for all parties in the region, and drawing huge investments in the sector’s tremendous untapped market, especially in advanced diagnostics, traditional Chinese medicine and online medical care domains.
While speaking of the battle against the coronavirus and the mainland’s assistance with testing, Professor Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, said he believes medical practitioners in Hong Kong are currently overwhelmed. The cross-boundary collaboration in virus testing will help the city improve its fight against the COVID-19 onslaught, said Lo, whose hospital participated in the aid program.
The institution he heads, located in Shenzhen’s Futian district, is one of two teaching hospitals of the University of Hong Kong. Launched in 2012, it was built and funded by the Shenzhen municipal government, and is alluded to as an integral part of the nation’s medical reform process. The hospital has participated in the province’s joint procurement of test kits, bringing down the cost from about 80 yuan (US$11.5) to 15 yuan per kit. The saving is massive, considering the hospital has to conduct more than 2,000 tests a day at its peak.
Doctors from the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital take samples from cross-boundary truck drivers for coronavirus testing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Mutual benefit
A COVID-19 test in Shenzhen sets one back by only about 150 yuan, in stark contrast to what patients in Hong Kong would be staring at for the service — a nearly 10-fold price tag.
Lo nailed doubts about the reliability of such tests, assuring that the product’s accuracy rate complies with national requirements. In fact, the product quality is relatively higher for joint government purchases, and the manufacturing ability of suppliers is stable.
He called for the joint establishment of a scientific research laboratory that can act as a platform for a better exchange of professionals, technology and funds between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. His hospital itself plans to create a clinical and translational medicine research center in five years.
I believe medical research is of mutual benefit to Hong Kong and Shenzhen in future, and project research can be dealt with on either side
Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital
“I believe medical research is of mutual benefit to Hong Kong and Shenzhen in future, and project research can be dealt with on either side.”
Lo said that establishing a collaborative research institution requires the free exchange of doctors from both sides, but added that mutual recognition of professional medical qualifications remains a major hurdle. For instance, Hong Kong’s liver transplant surgeons are well-known worldwide, but the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital has been unable to bring them in yet because of these policy restrictions.
The mainland authorities are not resting on their laurels and are making incessant efforts to address the issue. Late last year, the Guangdong Human Resources and Social Security Department issued a document with guidelines on professional title evaluation and qualification recognition in the Bay Area.
The document says it supports top-end hospitals in reviewing professional titles themselves, and eligible Hong Kong doctors could secure mainland qualifications directly. Further plans to promote large-scale recognition are in the pipeline.
Jens Ewert, head of Deloitte China Life Sciences and Health Care Industry, agreed that COVID-19 has highlighted the benefits of a strong diagnostics industry in Guangdong.
He pointed to the advantages of scale and other efficiencies, saying the diagnostics field could also have strong potential if specimens and other samples can be transported throughout the Bay Area, which aims to be a world-class hub for quality living, working and travel, with intercity commute virtually possible in a “New York minute”.
He believes it’s a “win-win” strategy that allows access to more cutting-edge diagnosis in Guangdong and lowers costs for more traditional testing in Hong Kong and Macao.
“The life sciences sector has historically maintained its headquarters in Beijing or Shanghai,” Ewert noted. “But recently, there’s a growing focus on innovation and development and several companies have opened innovation or research and development centers in the Bay Area.”
The Guangdong provincial government has been striving to establish platforms to attract medical care resources to the region’s Bay Area cities. The latest move is the Greater Bay Area Precision Medicine Industry Base, the construction of which kicked off in Guangzhou in June, with a total investment of 50 billion yuan.
The project includes an industrial park, gathering manufacturers and distribution firms, a research institution led by Shanghai’s prestigious Fudan University, and an international hospital focusing on devastating intractable diseases.
In Ewert’s view, the market’s full potential has yet to be tapped, given its large population and available advanced technologies. “A glimpse of the potential can be taken in the development of the TCM sector in Macao which now has the opportunity to be further integrated into Guangdong.”
Lo Chung-mau, chief executive of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital.
Set up shop
The Traditional Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Industrial Park of Cooperation between Guangdong and Macao got off the ground in the Hengqin New Area, Zhuhai, in 2011.
The park aims to internationalize TCM and initiate an exchange platform for the healthcare industry. So far, some 100 medicine companies from the mainland and the two SARs have moved in.
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical — one of the mainland’s largest pharmaceutical enterprises and a major TCM manufacturing base — is among those that have set up shop at the park. Through the Hengqin platform, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical built up its international headquarters in Macao in January as a window for its thrust into Southeast Asia and Portuguese-speaking countries.
In addition, the company has entered into strategic cooperation pacts with the University of Hong Kong and the University of Macao to help ensure that TCM meets modern international standards.
Group chairman Li Chuyuan said Guangdong is home to the TCM industry and Macao and Hong Kong excel at international relations, offering the Bay Area an incomparable advantage in scientific exchange and industrial cooperation in the field.
He urged TCM companies in Guangdong to make good use of the springboard and reposition their development with a global vision.
According to the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong, the province’s revenue from the TCM industry hit 62 billion yuan last year, accounting for 10 percent of the nation’s total.
Medical companies and practitioners are also seeing growing potential in the internet-based healthcare market. In November 2018, WeDoctor — an online medical service provider backed by Shenzhen-based tech behemoth Tencent — inaugurated a platform to serve cities in the Bay Area and appointed Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, former Hong Kong Hospital Authority chairman, as its head.
So far, the platform has linked up more than 10,000 doctors at nearly 80 hospitals in the region and about 500 drug stores.
Wu said many people in the Bay Area have profited from their services amid the pandemic, and Hong Kong’s online medicine shopping could gain momentum with deeper integration into the Bay Area.
