On November 6, 2023, Dr. Tom Frieden, CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was invited to deliver a speech entitled "Global Collaboration and Partnership for Healthy People a Healthy World" at the Shuhua Building of Peking University Health Science Center. Before the speech, Professor Ren Minghui, Director of the Institute of Global Health and School of Public Health of Peking University, welcomed Dr. Tom Frieden's arrival and introduced Dr. Tom Frieden's academic achievements and the topic of his speech.
Dr. Tom Frieden thanked the Institute for Global Health of Peking University for its kind invitation and praised Peking University as "China's Harvard". Achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals will require longer life, less disability, lower healthcare costs, more productive economies, and stronger global partnerships and cooperation. He further elaborated on six key areas for achieving global health goals: reducing tobacco use, reducing the disease burden of heart disease and stroke, improving primary health care and its centrality in health systems, controlling antibiotic resistance, cleaning the air, and strengthening public health systems. Tom Frieden is very concerned about China's efforts to build a healthy China in recent years. He believes that tobacco control is essential and that no health policy can succeed without a meaningful reduction in tobacco use. Heart disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in China and globally, but most of these deaths are preventable, requiring improved dietary behaviors, enhanced access to medicines and equipment, and team-based prevention and control measures. Primary health care should also be strengthened to improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health systems.
Following the keynote address, Frieden also answered questions on strengthening public health systems, global partnerships and collaboration, primary health care system building, global health talent development, climate change and health issues, and global health diplomacy.