In a significant move to address the escalating metabolic disease epidemic across member nations, the China-SCO Cooperation Center for Metabolic Diseases was formally inaugurated on Friday at Shanghai’s Ruijin Hospital. This pioneering initiative represents a major advancement in multinational healthcare collaboration within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization framework.
The newly established center emerges as a critical response to what medical experts describe as one of the most pressing health challenges of the 21st century. Metabolic disorders—including diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular conditions—have reached alarming proportions throughout SCO territories, with diabetes prevalence substantially exceeding global averages and continuing to accelerate at an unprecedented pace.
Professor Ning Guang, President of Ruijin Hospital, emphasized the severity of the situation during the opening ceremony: “Metabolic diseases and their complications now constitute the primary cause of noncommunicable disease mortality within SCO nations, accounting for more than 70% of all deaths. This health crisis demands immediate, coordinated international action.”
The center, initially proposed by Premier Li Qiang in November, has garnered extensive support across SCO member states, observer nations, and dialogue partners. It is designed to function as a comprehensive hub encompassing international medical services, advanced professional training, strategic health research, and technological cooperation in biomedicine and medical equipment development.
With an ambitious three-year agenda, the facility aims to train 2,000 metabolic disease specialists, facilitate the sharing of 500 medical technologies across the region, and establish a dedicated forum to promote ongoing health cooperation. The center will focus on enhancing regional coordination, exchanging best practices, upgrading technological capabilities, and innovating governance mechanisms through medical assistance programs, professional training initiatives, technology sharing, and industrial exchanges.
Professor Ning articulated the center’s overarching vision: “We seek to build consensus across SCO nations regarding the treatment, prevention, control, and governance of metabolic diseases, ultimately creating a resilient, universally beneficial, and inclusive metabolic health community.”
The initiative acknowledges the considerable challenges posed by the diverse genetic backgrounds, cultural traditions, dietary habits, economic development levels, and disease susceptibility patterns across SCO member states. Despite these complexities, many participating nations have developed valuable local expertise and innovative approaches to metabolic disease management that will inform the center’s collaborative efforts.
China contributes its extensively developed National Metabolic Management Center program, launched by Ruijin Hospital in 2016. This program has established 492 standard operating procedures and 72 core technologies, creating a comprehensive standardized operational and quality control system that currently encompasses 2,068 hospitals nationwide and manages approximately 3.5 million diabetes patients—representing the world’s largest diabetes management network.
SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev praised the center’s establishment as a substantial advancement in the organization’s health cooperation efforts, which have been developing since 2011. He expressed optimism that this initiative would catalyze further collaboration among member states in the coming years.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, founded in 2001 by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The organization has expanded from six to ten member states, with additional observer countries and dialogue partners participating in its initiatives.