A New Chapter Unfolds: Setting Sail Once More!
New Year's Greetings for 2026 from Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University
December 31, 2025
Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Partners,
As spring returns and nature renews, we welcome the New Year with clear vision and fresh hopes. At this joyful moment of bidding farewell to the old and ushering in the new, on behalf of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center (ZOC), Sun Yat-sen University, we extend our sincerest New Year’s greetings and best wishes to all faculty, staff, students, retired colleagues, alumni worldwide, partners who support our mission, and every patient who places their trust in us!
The year 2025 marked the 60th anniversary of Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center. Throughout the year, we focused on high-level academic and public service activities, refined our “Bright-X” vision, and let the melody of our “March Toward Light” resonate far and wide, uniting all members of ZOC around a shared purpose and direction.
In this year, we pursued excellence in precision, refining medical skills and safeguarding vision in serving the people. We strived to ensure that every patient has access to quality eye care they can trust, serving over 1,600,000 people this year. We were honored with Guangdong Provincial Key Clinical Specialty Development Program, three Guangzhou Municipal Clinical High-Tech Awards, a Major Clinical Achievement Award, and designation as a Guangzhou Municipal Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Major, Difficult, and Rare Diseases. We launched the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Referral Program and secured approval for four drugs and devices under the “Hong Kong-Macao Drug and Medical Device Access” policy, extending high-quality eye health services across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. We also advanced the work of the National Ophthalmic Quality Control Center and established the Guangdong Provincial Ophthalmic Quality Control Training Base to improve the standardization and homogenization level of ophthalmic professionals.
In this year, we boasted courage to explore, venturing into uncharted territories and forging new advantages at the forefront of science and technology. Our organized research efforts achieved significant breakthroughs, earning two first-prize and one second-prize awards in the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Awards—a record high for our center. We successfully obtained the approval for the Guangzhou Ocular Disease Prevention & Treatment Concept Verification Center, a Guangdong Provincial Academician Workstation, and a Guangdong Provincial Pilot-Scale Testing Platform. We also undertook four major national research projects and two youth talent projects.
In this year, we demonstrated agility in change, striving for progress and overcoming challenges through pioneering trials. Embracing the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, we made solid progress in the “Air-Space-Land-Sea” integrated eye health service system. We jointly built China’s first “Flying Eye Hospital” and successfully performed the nation’s first eye surgery and first cataract sight-restoration surgery onboard an aircraft. Our 5G Intelligent Ophthalmic Mobile Clinic, having served over a hundred cities nationwide, was upgraded into the integrated “Wisdom Eye Mobile Hospital” for prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The official release of the “Eye Care Map,” along with the world’s first surgeries performed using high-precision remote surgical robots and the TBL Ophthalmic Mobile Operating Room, marked further innovation. Our innovative “Intelligent Mobile Clinic + Mobile Operating Room” service model has been designated by the National Health Commission as a national demonstration model for promotion.
In this year, we kept steadfast in principle, nurturing talent and building the future. We continued to improve our system for cultivating leading professionals. Our experts edited the People's Medical Publishing House's “Ophthalmology” case database and authored Eye Care Guide for the Whole Family, which was recognized as one of “China’s Best Books of the Year.” In partnership with the School of Medicine at Sun Yat-sen University, we launched the “BRIGHT-X Ophthalmology Innovation Class,” creating a new integrated undergraduategraduate talent training model. We strengthened curriculum and teaching innovation, with two courses recognized as provincial first-class courses. Our AIenhanced ophthalmic practical teaching was selected as a typical case by the Ministry of Education.
The cultivation of high-level talents has yielded fruitful results. Our staff have won the title of "National Advanced Worker in the Health System", been elected Vice Chairman of the Chinese Association of Young Scientists and Technologists, and served as chairman and vice chairman of academic institutions such as the Laser Medicine Branch and the Medical Genetics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association. A distinguished alumnus was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Our “Light-Chasing Youth” continue to shine brightly in the ophthalmology mission.
In this year, we dedicated ourselves to action, serving broader goals and demonstrating global responsibility. From our 14th medical mission over 13 years to Yushu, Qinghai, to forming a national ophthalmic mobile medical team for the second year to undertake stateassigned tasks; from our 5G Intelligent Ophthalmic Mobile Clinic continuing to go deep into Xinjiang, Tibet, and many areas in eastern Guangdong, benefiting over 130,000 individuals, to completing the "Guangdong-Xinjiang Bright Journey" and creating the "Xinxing Model" to serve Guangdong's "Hundred Counties, Thousand Towns, Ten Thousand Villages Rural Revitalization Program", we contributed to the construction of Healthy China. Initiatives like “Bright Messengers Journey: AI Reaching Thousands of Families” and the “Daily AI Eye Care Cabin” have brought quality eye health services to the “last kilometer.” On the global stage, our “Small yet Beautiful” Bright Journey initiative, a sightrestoration international outreach program, continued to shine in countries such as Fiji and Maldives, earning a place among Guangdong’s Top Ten Outstanding Cases of International Volunteer Service.
In this year, we excelled in practice, leading the way, taking on heavy responsibilities and setting examples on the new journey. We inaugurated the Xinjiang Branch of the International Medical Center of Ophthalmology, signed agreements to establish the Hainan International Eye Hospital, the Western Guangdong Hospital, and the Guangdong DigitalIntelligent Ophthalmology and Visual Health Industry Innovation and Application Center, and promoted the construction of the China-Africa Joint Medical Center (Ophthalmology)—opening a new chapter in collaborative development.
Through sixty years of dedication, our commitment remains unwavering; as we set sail into a new era, our mission guides us forward. Looking forward to 2026, we will continue to uphold the noble spirit of serving our nation and people. Guided by light and driven by vision, we will understand change clearly, respond thoughtfully, and embrace transformation actively. On the journey to build a worldclass ophthalmic center, we will steadily advance our “123 Master Plan” and “1411 Specific Requirements”, explore the boundless possibilities of “Bright-X,” and contribute ever greater strength from ZOC to Healthy China and the global cause of sight.
We sincerely wish our great motherland prosperity and vitality. We wish all faculty, staff, students, retired colleagues, alumni, and friends good health, success in your endeavors, happiness for your families, and a joyful New Year!
Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University
