The “China – Canada Mental Health Summit” and the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between Shanghai Mental Health Center (SMHC) and University of British Columbia Department of Psychiatry (DOP-UBC) were successfully held on May 8, 2023 at the Xuhui Campus of SMHC.
Professor Lakshmi Yatham (the director of DOP-UBC), Professor Weiyi Song (DOP-UBC), Professor Min Zhao (the president of SMHC), Professor Chunbo Li (vice-president of SMHC), Professor Zhen Wang (vice-president of SMHC), Professor Huafang Li (the director of SMHC Clinical Research Center), Professor Jun Chen (the director of SMHC Department of Patient Experience and Intelligent Medicine), and Professor Xin Fan (the director of the office of National Center for Mental Disorders) attended the renewal ceremony.
DOP-UBC is the second largest academic psychiatry department in Canada, with more than 1050 staff involved in teaching, clinical practice and research on a wide range of diseases such as mood disorders, psychiatric disorders, youth mental health, substance use/addiction, and traumatic brain injury, covering neuroimaging, neuromodulation, post-mortem studies, clinical trials, computational modeling, health service research, and digital health applications.
Before the renewal ceremony, Professor Lakshmi Yatham and Professor Weiyi Song presented “Recent Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Depression” and “Advances in Treatment of Bipolar Depression – the experience sharing in using of ketamine” respectively, introducing the latest trends in the treatment of bipolar depression and major depressive disorder from the perspective of latest researches and clinical practice.
Our hospital signed a memorandum of understanding with DOP-UBC in 2019 and both parties have ever since conducted fruitful cooperation in areas of scientific research, postgraduate education, online forums, and digital mental health in recent years. At this renewal ceremony, both parties summarized their past experiences and discussed in depth the future direction of cooperation. Professor Min Zhao and Professor Lakshmi Yatham agreed both sides had a good foundation of cooperation in research, clinical practice and education and training. Up to now, there has been a national funded joint research project under research, and one doctoral student has been jointly trained. In the future, we can continue to leverage our respective strengths to deepen cooperation in fields of new drug research and development, big data mining, digital mental health, joint training of young physicians/researchers, and mutual research visits, and cultivate key joint scientific research projects in a bid to further promote the common development of both sides in the field of psychiatry.
