The development path of the medical profession in China’s engineering universities from the perspective of the ‘four new’ disciplines

Figures & data

Figure 1. The framework for the development of new medicine in engineering universities.

Table 1. Integration of four new disciplines into medical education.

	New engineering	New medicine	New agriculture	New liberal arts
Function and goal	Enhance national hard power	Improve national health	Enhance ecological growth	Enhance cultural soft power
How it is related to medicine	Aim at the frontier of medicine-engineering interdisciplinary integration, carry out in-depth cooperation in medicine-engineering integration in the fields of rehabilitation aids, smart medicine and health, biomechanics, new biomaterials, etc.	Move medical education forwards and backwards from the area of treatment, that is, from the original treatment to the trinity of prevention, treatment and health care, from treatment to the whole life cycle and the whole process of health (new concept) [30].	Promote the intersection of biology, biotechnology and other disciplines with forestry engineering and forestry majors, transform and upgrade existing agriculture-related majors, and deploy new industries such as intelligent agriculture, agricultural big data, forest health care, and ecological restoration.	Strengthen the cross-integration of medicine and humanities, promote the organic integration of humanities education and medical education, and cultivate medical talents with ‘temperature’ and ‘depth’ [31].
Advantages	Realize the shift from engineering orientation to industry demand orientation, from professional segmentation to cross-border cross-integration, and from adaptive services to support and leadership.	Focus training on grasping the five skills: Taoism, benevolence, academics, technology and art (new connotation).	Face new agriculture, new villages, new farmers, and new ecology, and promote the construction of new agricultural sciences to further deepen and improve to promote the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas and improve the quality of life and empowerment of the people.	The construction of new liberal arts belongs not only to China but also to the world; it not only plays a leading role in China’s development but also has a Chinese school, Chinese voice, and Chinese appeal and influence in shaping power in the development of the world.
Challenges	At present, there is a shortage of senior engineers with a medical interdisciplinary background, but it is difficult to encourage most medical or engineering discipline leaders to break through knowledge barriers and carry out interdisciplinary communication and research [32].	The construction of ‘new medicine’ corresponds to the requirements of the new round of the scientific and technological revolution and industrial reform, and realizes the integration of traditional disciplines and specialties with artificial intelligence, big data, robotics and other technologies.	Efforts should be made to enhance the ability to train new talents who know and love farmers, to enhance the level of agricultural scientific and technological innovation, to enhance the contribution to serving ‘agriculture, rural areas and farmers’, and to enhance the international competitiveness of agricultural and forestry education.	To enhance cultural soft power, the construction of new liberal arts corresponds to the reorganization of disciplines and the intersection of arts and sciences compared with traditional liberal arts, that is, the integration of new technologies into courses such as philosophy, literature, and language [33].
Representative specialty	Biomedical engineering, intelligent medical engineering, medical imaging technology and application, etc.	Precision medicine, translational medicine, intelligent medicine, etc.	Veterinary medicine, biology, etc.	Medical humanities English, medical insurance, etc.
Construction requirements	New specialties, new requirements, cross-integration and innovation are where the ‘new’ lies. The ‘four new’ disciplines are a  new educational reform in the new era, a new quality of Chinese higher education in the new era, a new system of higher education in the new era, a new quality culture of universities in the new era, and a high-quality revolutionary project.

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Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.