Addressing Global Child Health Challenges

This roundtable, co-hosted by BMJ Group, BMJ Paediatrics Open and Archives of Disease in Childhood, brought together a panel of leading experts from China, the UK, Australia and Sweden to tackle global child health challenges and explore the rise of multi-center clinical research and real-world evidence in China. 

The event featured two main sessions, starting with keynote presentations on cohort studies, multi-center research designs, and national children’s medical center-driven studies, followed by an open panel discussion among pediatric leaders and journal editors. Across these sessions, speakers and panelists addressed how to navigate the operational challenges of multi-center trials—such as ethical approval, data standardization, and funding shortages—while breaking down barriers across regions, disciplines, and methodologies to facilitate evidence-based practice and future international academic collaborations.

This roundtable is sponsored by the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group.

Post-COVID child health challenges are massive and socially determined, encompassing an ongoing rise in non-communicable diseases, mental health issues, obesity, and continuous threats from infectious diseases and health misinformation.

Addressing these complex global issues effectively requires involving robust clinical research from China, where abundant clinical resources, large sample sizes, expansive networks, and strong adherence to study protocols offer immense potential to shape and lead global pediatric interventions.

By exploring how collaborative multi-center clinical trials, cohort studies, and real-world evidence can enhance research credibility and drive changes in international health guidelines, this roundtable helps chart a path toward high-quality, data-transparent, and practice-changing care that improves children’s health and well-being worldwide.

Director of the Clinical Research Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, School of Pediatrics,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Vice President, Chongqing Medical University

Party Secretary and President, Children’s Hospital of Soochow University

Head of Publishing Programmes, BMJ Group (was the founding Editor in Chief of The
Lancet Child & Adolescent Health)

President, The Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine

Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical
University

Chair Professor, Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology; Research Editor, The BMJ

Director of the Department of Pharmacy, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan
University; Associate Editor, BMJ Paediatrics Open

Professor of Evidence Synthesis and Systematic Review, University of Central Lancashire,
UK; Deputy Editor, BMJ Paediatrics Open

Associate Professor, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University,
Sweden; Editor-in-Chief, Archives of Disease in Childhood

Director, Community Paediatrics, South Western Sydney Local Health District;
Editor-in-Chief, BMJ Paediatrics Open

Honorary Director of the Hematology and Oncology Center, Beijing Children’s Hospital,
Capital Medical University

Chief Pediatric Expert, Hainan Women and Children’s Medical Center

Vice President, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University

President, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center

Paediatric Nephrologist, The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK;
Social Media Editor, Archives of Disease in Childhood

Director, Institute of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Zhengzhou University

Managing Director, BMJ China

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