With the vision of “promoting health equity and improving health for all in China and worldwide”, Duke Kunshan University’s (DKU) Global Health Program has continued working closely with partners around the world in 2022, actively conducting research, generating robust evidence, and providing policy advice. In collaboration with the World Economic Forum and others, the Global Health Program published the white paper Chronic Diseases 2030: Innovation Accelerates Transformation to draw on best practices from the pandemic response to help developing countries build more resilient health systems and accelerate the prevention and control of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs). The newly established Vaccine Delivery Research Innovation Laboratory organizes collaborative research among domestic and international institutions to develop strategies for strengthening the national immunization program. These activities include enhancing the efficiency and coverage of vaccine delivery, improving vaccine financing and services, and advocating for the inclusion of key vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) into the national immunization program. In 2022, several high-quality policy briefings and scientific papers were produced. The study on Integrated Care for Tuberculosis and Diabetes Mellitus Comorbidity in Asian Countries: Health System Challenges and Opportunities was published by the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies of the WHO. The case study on purchasing instruments and arrangements to improve the quality of health services for chronic diseases in China, funded by an international organization, has achieved preliminary results. Important progress has been made in the study of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Our research report on the policy of free influenza vaccination for older adults has attracted widespread attention. Five Global Health professors have received grants from the Hou Tu Research Fund to conduct research on healthy aging, chronic disease and infectious disease prevention and control. Biological research on zoonotic disease prevention and control continues.

The Global Health Research Center received a total of 14.259 million CNY (2.192 million USD) in funding in 2022—the highest since its establishment. A total of 92 academic papers were published, with 52 as first or corresponding authors, 12 in journals with impact factors above 10, and 34 in journals with impact factors above 5. Under the guidance of the Global Health faculty, students actively participated in global health research and practice, including two master students who received incentive grants for Young Researchers offered by the Global NCD Platform and the Defeat-NCD Partnership. These students were invited by the WHO to attend the Young Researchers Grants Award Ceremony at the World Health Summit in October 2022 in Berlin, Germany. The multidisciplinary global health research projects conducted by undergraduate students have been completed with papers submitted for publication. According to the latest Essential Science Indicators (ESI) statistics released by Clarivate Analytics, Duke Kunshan has been ranked among ESI Global Top 1% in Clinical Medicine for the fifth consecutive year.

The Master of Science in Global Health education program made a new breakthrough in 2022, with the highest enrollment ever. To meet the diverse needs of students, we reached an agreement with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in the United States to open some of its courses to students in the Master of Science in Global Health program at DKU. In terms of internship sites, students in the program can choose existing domestic and international internship bases or apply to participate in internship activities within the Duke Global Policy Program in Geneva at various United Nations agencies and international organizations. It is expected that, in the future, students will have even more diverse and rich opportunities for overseas summer internships and research activities.

Our cooperation with domestic universities, media, think tanks and international educational and research institutions has been further consolidated and expanded, including the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement with the National University of Health Sciences of Cambodia for exchanges and cooperation in the field of global health research, education, and training. An agreement was also signed with the Health Human Resources Development Center of China’s National Health Commission to jointly train global health professionals in the coming years. The Global Health Research Center of DKU, the Duke Global Health Institute in the United States, and the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute of Singapore will work closely together to promote scientific research and exchanges on global health in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world.

Building on the achievements of the Global Health Program since its establishment in 2013, and in accordance with DKU’s mission of building a “highly selective research-oriented, liberal arts and sciences university in China to enable students from around the world to lead purposeful and productive lives”, and based on global health trends and environmental analysis, the Global Health Program formulated the Strategic Plan (2022-2027). In the next five years, we will focus on global health research, education and training, knowledge translation and partnership. With the support of the Kunshan Government, Wuhan University, and Duke University, we will make unremitting efforts to improve health in China and around the world, promote health equity and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through innovation and cooperation.