laitimes

Xia Huimin, deputy to the Provincial People's Congress: Establish a maternal and child health research institute and increase investment in scientific research in the field of women and children

"Only a generation of healthy mothers and healthy babies will have a healthy adult and society in the future." On January 20, the Fifth Session of the 13th People's Congress of Guangdong Province opened, and Xia Huimin, deputy to the Provincial People's Congress and secretary of the Party Committee of Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, continued to pay attention to maternal and child health, and proposed the establishment of the Guangdong Maternal and Child Health Research Institute to increase scientific research investment in the field of maternal and child health.

Xia Huimin, deputy to the Provincial People's Congress: Establish a maternal and child health research institute and increase investment in scientific research in the field of women and children

He said that the "Healthy China 2030" planning outline proposes that the people's health must be placed in a strategic position of priority development, "maternal and child health promotion action" is the top priority, women and children account for 2/3 of the total population of the mainland, the protection of women and children's health, related to the quality and future of the Chinese nation, healthy China, maternal and child health is the foundation.

At present, the field of women's and children's health has achieved a phased victory in controlling and reducing two mortality rates (maternal mortality and infant mortality). However, the rapid change in the spectrum of women's and children's diseases, the continuous increase in the incidence of pregnancy complicated by serious medical and surgical diseases, children's allergies, malignant tumors, neurodevelopmental delays, etc., the increase in the proportion of children surviving with long-term diseases, and the aging of adult chronic diseases (diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc.), all of which pose new and important threats to the health of women and children.

The proposal mentions that the maternal and child health service in Guangdong Province has a good population base and management experience, such as with the support of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, from 2010 to 2016, guangzhou region relied on the "Maternal and Infant Health Action Plan" to carry out interventions to improve obstetric quality and control caesarean section rate. The city's caesarean section rate dropped from 42.4% before the intervention to 34.7% in 2016, with a cumulative reduction of 65,000 caesarean sections in 6 years. This achievement was published in the internationally renowned academic journal "Public Science Library - Medicine", and the "Guangzhou Experience" has attracted global attention, further enhancing the international influence of the management level of maternal and child health in Guangzhou. In 2021, due to the epidemic sealing period, relying on the help of "digitalization", the "Spike Good Pregnancy" was quickly launched to escort pregnant women in the sealing and control area.

"We still profoundly see that the scientific and technological leadership and technical support in the field of maternal and child health are incompatible with Guangdong's social and economic development and scientific and technological development." Xia Huimin said that this is mainly reflected in the lack of innovation in the diagnosis and treatment of women's and children's diseases, in 2021 the province commended 176 science and technology awards, only 4 related to pregnant women and children; in 2019, the provincial science and technology project investment, the proportion of funds for women's and children's health research was less than 1%, and only 1 women's and children's specialized hospital in Guangdong entered the top 100 of the 2020 China Hospital Ranking (Comprehensive), failing to form a regionalization.

In addition, the existing maternal and child health service resources and service capabilities in Guangdong Province have not adapted to the changes in the structure of women's and children's health needs, the talent and technical reserves are insufficient, and the application of new technologies in the field of maternal and child health is facing huge challenges.

For example, the lack of detection technology suitable for children's trace biological specimens, the high cost of existing genetic, omics and other tests in the field of women and children's clinical application is very difficult, implantable materials can not match the growth and development needs of children, suitable for Chinese children's drug dosage and treatment plan research, etc., are all urgent clinical problems to be solved.

How to institutionally guarantee and encourage scientific innovation related to maternal and child health, how to integrate clinical research resources in pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology, build a basic experimental platform and innovative research base, and promote the transformation of medical research achievements and talent training to become a new problem restricting the development of maternal and child health services in Guangdong Province.

Xia Huimin believes that this requires a dedicated scientific research and technical team that is closely integrated with clinical needs and actively promotes clinical transformation, and more importantly, it is necessary to establish a mature and systematic scientific research platform for maternal and child health to ensure continuous and stable policies to ensure funding investment, talent training and introduction, hardware support, intellectual property protection and research application transformation and promotion in the field of maternal and child health research.

He suggested that the Maternal and Child Health Research Institute be set up to systematically and large-scale promote scientific and technological innovation in the field of maternal and child health, and build it into a high-end basic research platform for women's and children's health and diseases in the region, a strategic reserve platform for clinical research resources and a scientific research cooperation and sharing platform, as well as a strategic resource library for maternal and child health and medical big data with its own characteristics; relying on the Maternal and Child Health Research Institute, convene and train a group of full-time basic scientific research and clinical research personnel related to maternal and child health.

"2022 is an important start to achieving 'Healthy China 2030.'" Xia Huimin said that reasonable and forward-looking planning can promote and accelerate effective supply-side capacity building for maternal and child health, only generations of healthy mothers and healthy babies will have healthy adults and society in the future, and investing in women and children is to lay the foundation for the realization of "healthy Guangdong" and "healthy China".

Text, photo/ Guangzhou Daily, Xinhua City reporter Wei Lina

Guangzhou Daily Xinhuacheng Editor Wang Dian