National medical exec honored with 'Woman of Distinction Award'

Professor Wang Yi, director of the National Children's Medical Center and president of the Shanghai-based Children's Hospital of Fudan University, was honored with the "Woman of Distinction Award" by the International Development Information Organization (IDIO), a non-governmental organization with special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, in New York on Tuesday local time.

This recognition celebrates her exceptional contributions to promoting children's brain health, rare disease diagnosis and treatment, medical innovation and global health initiatives.

Representing outstanding women in the Chinese medical community, Wang, a pediatric neurology expert, was also invited to attend the 69th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 2025, which opened in New York on Monday.

At a parallel forum themed "Empowering Women with Technology: Crossing the Digital Divide", Wang delivered a keynote speech on childhood brain health, sharing China's innovative practices and global vision in the field of children's brain health.

In her speech, she highlighted China's work and achievements in children's and women's health, particularly in brain health. She also talked about the country's national system construction for the purpose and the facilitation of international cooperation on a global scale to collectively build an international community focused on children's brain health.

She said that by 2030, China aims to establish 10 national-level comprehensive children's brain health centers, which will leverage national medical centers to focus on complex and severe conditions and cutting-edge technology research and development, such as brain-machine interface and gene editing, and 100 regional-level standardized children's brain health centers that will impact communities, conducting early screening and intervention by using technologies like artificial intelligence-empowered wearable devices and intelligent electroencephalogram assessments.