On October 14, 2021, the seminar on “How to improve the preparation of Public Health professionals to face future pandemics”, jointly hosted by Tsinghua University and Universidad Católica de Chile, and organized by Tsinghua Latin American Center, the Vanke School of Public Health of Tsinghua University, the Institute for Healthy China of Tsinghua University, the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs of Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Department of Public Health of the Faculty of Medicine of Universidad Católica de Chile, was successfully held online. Students, scholars, medical and healthcare workers, and representatives of relevant government agencies from China, Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador participated in the event.

The seminar was co-chaired by Professor Chen Taotao, Director of Tsinghua University Latin America Center, and Professor Claudia Bambs, director of the department of Public Health of Universidad Católica de Chile. Professor Liang Wannian, executive vice dean of the Vanke School of Public Health and director of the Institute for Healthy China, and Professor Lilian Ferrer, Vice President for International Affairs of Universidad Católica de Chile, delivered the opening remarks.

Prof. Lilian Ferrer said that to face the future challenges in public health, the cultivation of public health professionals should be strengthened, and it would be necessary to improve new knowledge, new methods and adopt all kinds of technologies, that this seminar was organized based on the numerous collaborations between the two universities, and that she hoped that both sides could reach more cooperation and promote knowledge transfer.

In turn, Prof. Liang Wannian expressed a good vision for future cooperation between the two universities in the field of public health and pointed out that the universities should have an international perspective and enhance public health governance through international cooperation. As for public health talents preparation, he said that we need to cultivate compound-type of public health professionals who can apply cross-cutting and comprehensive analysis, rigorous judgment on prevention and control, as well as global cooperation and global vision.He believed that the traditional education model for public health professionals should be reformed. The training of public health talent should be developed toward a diversified training model because it was difficult to rely on talents specialized in one area to cope with a pandemic.

The new coronavirus pneumonia pandemic has made countries all over the world realize the importance and urgency of public health talent cultivation.

During the meeting, experts from China, Chile and Mexico shared their insights on the integration of public health and medical education, improvement of public health professionals' training, and key principles for dealing with pandemic and had a full exchange on these topics.

In the keynote speech session, associate professor Jiming Zhu, researcher of Vanke School of Public Health of Tsinghua University, shared his experience in the cultivation of compound talents from four aspects, including the divide between clinical medicine and public health, the differences and similarities between public health physicians in China and the United States, countermeasures for the integration of clinical medicine and public health, and the compound-type health talent training Program of Tsinghua and its characteristics.

Professor Jaime Sapag from the Faculty of Medicine of Universidad Católica de Chile, in turn, highlighted the importance of developing a future-oriented public health workforce with new competencies, based on the lessons learned by Chile in the management of the epidemic.

The sharing of the two experts further deepened the mutual understanding and consensus between the two sides in this field.

In the panel session, Professor Cheng Feng, assistant dean of Vanke School of Public Health and associate dean of the Institute for Healthy China of Tsinghua University, introduced the special program for cultivating high-level, application-oriented public health talents at Tsinghua University. He pointed out that cultivation of talents should keep up with the times and use an interdisciplinary approach to develop compound and innovative leading talents. Professor Daniel Bernal from the Universidad Tecnológica de Monterrey, said that public health is closely linked to global health, and that the Universidad Tecnológica de Monterrey had been paying great attention to expanding the vision of students, raising their awareness of public health, and popularizing the common knowledge of public health education from the undergraduate level. Professor Ma Hong, Deputy Director at the Mental Health Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized the need to pay more attention to the development of public mental health professionals to protect and promote the physical and mental health of the public.

At the end of the meeting, Prof. Chen Taotao, on behalf of Tsinghua Latin America Center, expressed her gratitude to all the participants and said that the Center will continue to play the role of platform to promote the all-round cooperation and exchange between China and Latin America. She looked forward to the mutual visits and exchanges between the youth and scholars of the two countries after the pandemic.