China's quest for management of academic medicine

The China Medical Board organized a management conference for the presidents of China's national medical universities. A three-person consulting team arranged by the Association of American Medical Colleges led the conference. Designed as a preliminary examination of the management problems faced by the national medical universities, the conference covered content similar to that of the AAMC Executive Development Seminars, including governance, financial management, faculty practice plans, technology transfer, information management, and organizational diagnosis. China's national medical universities are strategically managed by the Ministry of Public Health in Beijing, and for several years the ministry has increasingly decentralized the management and operational planning and control of these universities. The universities do not have enough properly trained personnel to absorb the additional management responsibilities, and the university presidents feel that they and their senior staffs need extensive training in adapting western-style management principles and practice to the Chinese setting.