2025/07/17
The Joint Summer School for Doctoral Programs was launched in 2012 as an international collaborative program between the ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app Graduate School of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), King's College London (UK), and Peking University Health Science Center (China). The program aims to bring together outstanding doctoral students from each country to learn cutting-edge knowledge from faculty members of each university and to deepen research exchange among students. The four participating universities take turns hosting the program, which centers on a lecture course.
The 2025 Summer School was hosted by Peking University Health Science Center from Monday, June 30 to Friday, July 4, under the theme "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine." Faculty members (2¨C5 from each) and doctoral students (approximately 4¨C10 from each) from Peking University Health Science Center, King's College London, and ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app participated. From ´ºÓêÖ±²¥app, Professor Masato Yasui of the Department of Pharmacology, a founding member of the program, along with Project Professor Naohiko Koyama of and Project Professor Hisateru Tachimori of the , delivered lectures. Faculty from Peking University and King's College London gave lectures in diverse fields such as health data science, biostatistics/medical informatics, and biomedical engineering/imaging sciences. Participants who already shared research interests engaged in active Q&A and exchange of opinions even after the lectures concluded.
The program featured many opportunities for discussion, fostering active exchange that transcended the boundaries between students and instructors. In the middle of the program, student volunteers from Peking University Health Science Center conducted a campus tour. While touring the vast campus, natural interactions occurred between students and instructors from different universities, providing a valuable opportunity to deepen relationships. Following these interactions, a "Round Table Session" was held after all lectures were completed. Instructors presented topics based on their own research fields, and students actively voiced their opinions from the audience, leading to a multifaceted and passionate discussion on the future of AI in medical sciences.
On the final day, doctoral students were divided into groups to give plenary presentations based on their own research fields and original ideas in response to questions prepared in advance by the instructors. Regarding AI, which is gaining increasing attention in the field of medical sciences, students presented diverse and sharp perspectives on themes such as its utility, the limits of its application, and the relationship between humans and AI.
The 2026 Joint Summer School for Doctoral Programs is scheduled to be hosted by King's College London, continuing with the theme "AI x Health Science." It is expected that future global leaders will emerge from the participants of this program, leading to the formation of an international alliance in "AI x Health Science" among the participating schools.