The first Beijing Summit on Data Science in Health was held September 15-16 in Beijing. The summit was themed “New Opportunities for Data Science in Health and Medicine: Infusion and Consolidation”, and saw an audience of over a thousand people. It was cohosted, under the guidance of the National Health Commission, by Peking University, Chinese Health Information and Big Data Association, Chinese Hospital Association, and China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Health Care. The organizer was PKU National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine.

　　During the summit, the attendees had heated discussions on a number of issues featured in the six parallel sessions, including establishment of regional center for data science in health and medicine, platform for industrial innovation, combination of artificial intelligence and healthcare, role of data-sharing platform in disease prevention and control, data security and international cooperation.

　　President Zhan Qimin of Peking University Health Science Center addressed the audience at the plenary session. He reviewed the establishment of the PKU National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine and pointed to PKU’s hospital system and strengths in related disciplines. He said that PKU is ready to exchange ideas with all the stakeholders about the demand, bottleneck and application of health big data and reach consensus to inform policy making.

　　Also during the plenary, Han Qide, President Zhan’s predecessor, while recognizing data science in health as a promising field, focused more on some of the issues where scrutiny is needed, such as data quality, silo effect, privacy, and interdesciplinarity. He also alerted people against the limitations of big data, calling for discretion between correlation and causal effect as well as between generalization and individuality.

　　Other keynote speakers at the plenary included Nobel Laureate Aaron Ciechanover, Director John Ainsworth of University of Manchester Center for Health Informatics, President Jin Xiaotao of Chinese Health Information and Big Data Association, Vice President Mei Hong of Beijing Institute of Technology, President Qiao Jie of Peking University Third Hospital, and President Liu Qian of Chinese Hospital Association.

　　Written by: Fan Xiaofei

　　Edited by: Liu Xin

　　Source: Peking University National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine