Duke administrators, faculty and researchers will shuttle between Durham and Peking University's Health Science Center in Beijing during the seven-year agreement to work with Chinese health officials.

The Peking University center, China's leading academic health and hospital network, is trying to become more competitive in a quickly evolving market for medical care.

The agreement calls for Duke Medicine to help the center establish systems and services that will improve efficiency.

"As China grows economically into a less-controlled, market-based economy, its health-care leaders are facing the new and daunting challenge of running a system with limited government support," said Dr. Victor Dzau, CEO of Duke University Health System.

International partnerships are nothing new for universities in the U.S., and agreements big and small already exist between campuses in the Triangle and China. Health-related fields are particularly active.

Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are working with Singapore health officials, including a formal agreement between Duke and the National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School. Duke has also worked with officials in India.

Dzau said the new agreement allows Duke to continue to advance its goal of becoming more involved in global health.

Founded in 1912, Peking University Health Science Center comprises eight independent hospitals and 11 schools with more than 10,000 students. The first step in the agreement is the opening of a joint cardiovascular training center, which was inaugurated Wednesday in Beijing.

The agreement also covers initiatives such as health-care management training for Chinese officials; joint research and clinical-care programs in specialties such as cardiology, cancer and geriatrics; and setting up guidelines for conducting large-scale clinical trials in China.

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