Health report

Promoting projects

In 2008, the journal launched a special annual issue on China and also set up its only Asia office in Beijing two years later. Since then, it has served as a bridge for academic exchanges between Chinese and foreign experts in the field of healthcare.

So far, Horton has written 10 reports on China, based on interviews with government officials and experts, including former health minister Chen Zhu and Cao Xuetao, an academician from the China Engineering Academy.

He expects the reports to not only support the Chinese government's decisions in health reforms, but also tell the world about what China is doing.

"There are many countries in the world that are struggling to achieve what China is achieving. By studying China, the Lancet can be a bridge between China and the rest of the world to tell that story," says Horton, who is impressed by China's progress toward universal health coverage as well as its success in reducing child mortality by 70 percent since 1996.

During his visits to China, Horton has also developed personal relations with professionals, including Cao, with both working hard to get the conference going last week.

It is likely to become an annual event, Horton says.

"The Lancet is always developing new relations with Chinese institutions."

Horton is excited that his journal recently began to work on papers on climate change and health with Tsinghua University - the first time Lancet has entered a joint project with a Chinese university.

The journal's rapport with officials, doctors and scientists here is helpful in bagging such projects.