On December 10, 2024, Joe Tucker, a dual professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Tom Fitzpatrick, a researcher at the University of Washington, were invited to visit the China Health Development Research Center (referred to as the "Center") at Peking University and participate in a health development dialogue on the theme of "Innovative Health Financing: Towards a Prosocial Future". The event is hosted by the center and co organized by the Beijing Alumni Association of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. More than 30 teachers and students from Peking University, Hong Kong Baptist University, Sichuan University, Fudan University and other universities participated in the exchange. The event was hosted by Associate Researcher Xu Jin, Assistant Professor of the Center and Beijing Alumni Contact of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Lecture group photo
Tucker (Chinese name: Zhou Haiqing) conducted an in-depth analysis of the funding difficulties, challenges, and innovations faced by infectious disease prevention and control, focusing on the conceptual framework of Pay it forward and its application in infectious disease prevention and control, especially in vaccine inoculation ("relay seed") and pathogen detection ("relay test"). This model stimulates goodwill transmission by providing donations to target recipients, and provides a continuous fundraising relay for infectious disease prevention and control by donating funds to others after benefiting from the medical and health products or services purchased through donations. He explained in detail the application cases of the Pay it forward model in China, including the significant effects achieved in the "relay testing" for infectious diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia, and the "relay vaccination" randomized controlled trials for influenza vaccines. Professor Tucker also shared the application of crowdsourcing in "relay testing" (such as designing project names with the participation of target beneficiary communities and encouraging others to accept testing postcards in "relay testing"). Due to its outstanding empirical effects, the pro social intervention model has been recognized by international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, becoming an officially recommended practice and winning multiple important awards.
Professor Tucker gives a presentation
Fitzpatrick explored the application of the Pay it forward model in doxycycline as a post hoc preventive treatment (doxy PEP) among Chinese men who have sex with men. He shared the design details and results of the experiment, focusing on exploring the potential of the Pay it forward model in promoting marginalized groups to accept new services and improving service utilization, and pointed out the need to explore strategies to increase the number and amount of donations. Fitzpatrick believes that China's Pay it forward innovation practices in recent years have also provided useful references for countries around the world, including the United States, on how to provide financing for sensitive infectious disease services.
Fitzpatrick researcher delivers a report
The two speakers also had in-depth discussions on the sustainability of Pay it forward communication, donation amount setting, intervention in joint development, implementation strategy design, and the participation of beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Xu Jin mentioned in his summary that Pay it forward has three special meanings: firstly, transforming marginalized groups that are usually seen as "problems" into potential subjects and sources of positive energy; Secondly, use benevolent transmission to combat the infection of diseases; Thirdly, it not only controls diseases and risks, but also promotes social construction through hygiene. Finally, Xu Jin also expressed gratitude on behalf of the center to the two speakers.
Field communication
