The 2026 China-Europe Cardio-Thoracic Disease Academic Conference was held in Shanghai, where Shanghai Chest Hospital released the Chest-AI model

The narrative of lung cancer diagnosis and treatment is being rewritten, with innovative drugs and combination treatment regimens employing multiple modalities emerging one after another, and these findings are not confined to top-tier journals. Recently, at the 2026 China-Europe Cardio-Thoracic Disease Academic Conference, hosted by the Shanghai Medical Association and organized by Shanghai Chest Hospital, top experts from home and abroad engaged in in-depth exchanges on topics such as the latest scientific research breakthroughs and innovations in clinical diagnosis and treatment in the field of cardio-thoracic health. "We hope China's voice can be heard by the world, and that the world's wisdom can further nourish our local clinical practice and research. This is the original intention behind our insistence on holding the China-Europe Cardio-Thoracic Disease Academic Conference for five consecutive years," introduced Hou Xumin, President of Shanghai Chest Hospital. The main forum specially invited Professor Luigi Di Biase, Director of the Electrophysiology Division at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, USA; Professor Felix J.F. Herth, Medical Director of Heidelberg Chest Hospital, Germany; and Professor Wang Jiayi, Director of the Clinical Laboratory and the Chest Tumor Basic Research Center at Shanghai Chest Hospital, to deliver keynote reports. The experts shared international frontier information and interdisciplinary research results in fields such as pulsed field ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, frontier advances in interventional pulmonology, and tumor biomarker diagnostic systems, drawing rounds of enthusiastic applause from the venue. On October 30, at 7 a.m., an early-morning session gathering international luminaries kicked off the Thoracic Surgery sub-forum. Top thoracic surgery experts from Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, France, Italy, Turkey, Spain and other countries, together with colleagues from the Thoracic Surgery Department of Shanghai Chest Hospital, engaged in in-depth exchanges on innovative frontier technologies, international education, reshaping surgical boundaries, and integrated surgical treatment. Li Zhigang, Director of the Thoracic Surgery Department at Shanghai Chest Hospital, told reporters that the diagnosis and treatment pathway for early-stage lung cancer has become relatively clear: screening thresholds are being moved forward, surgical methods are becoming minimally invasive, and postoperative adjuvant targeted therapy has an evidence base, with consensus on these steps gradually converging. Advanced-stage lung cancer is becoming one of the focuses of doctors' attention, including how to select appropriate perioperative regimens for patients. Artificial intelligence is hugely popular, and the medical field has abundant scenarios for its application. The Smart Healthcare sub-forum focused on digital empowerment and launched the "Smart Convergence at the Chest Hospital: A New Journey" initiative, a collaborative action for building the chest hospital's intelligent ecosystem. Shanghai Chest Hospital released the vertical application results of the Chest-AI model, showcasing the hospital's phased achievements in digital and intelligent construction. Participating experts delivered keynote reports on topics such as AI empowering smart hospitals and the clinical application of medical digital intelligence, and held a roundtable discussion on the collaborative building of a smart healthcare ecosystem. This conference set up one main forum and six sub-forums on thoracic surgery, nursing, youth, smart healthcare, innovation and translation, and interdisciplinary studies, attracting nearly 400 industry colleagues to attend. At the Nursing sub-forum, a new popular science book, "The 'Lung' Enigma," was released, translating frontline clinical nursing experience into an easy-to-understand health reader and extending the value of nursing from in-hospital diagnosis and treatment to health popularization for the entire population. "Cross-disciplinary integration and mutual learning through exchange are both the breadth of mind of academia and the very source of academic vitality. We hope to make the conference an important platform for showcasing, exchanging and collaborating with domestic and international peers in China's cardio-thoracic field," said Wu Jinhua, Party Secretary of Shanghai Chest Hospital. The progress of modern medicine cannot do without the guidance of critical thinking. This year's forum also specially set up a "roundtable debate" session for young experts, in which young doctors debated "innovation first or standardization first," with authoritative Chinese and foreign experts invited to comment. The China-Europe Cardio-Thoracic Disease Academic Conference has gradually expanded from its initial clinical technical exchanges into a three-dimensional network of Chinese-foreign medical cooperation covering joint talent cultivation, joint discipline building and win-win scientific research.