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Busy inbound and outbound travels testify to greater economic vitality in China

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BEIJING, Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from China.org.cn on traveling to China:

 

China’s National Day holiday has just passed, but many scenic spots in tourism cities still remain a scene of “people mountain people sea.” In this year’s sea of visitors, one can find more international tourists than in past years.

In recent years, China has paid great attention to further opening up. Frequent new measures have brought more positive changes to the country’s visa policy: The number of countries offered the unilateral visa-free policy has increased to 20; the 144-hour visa-free transit policy is now available for 54 countries at 37 ports; port-visa application has also been relaxed, providing more convenience for international friends in emergencies. Facilitated by these policies, more than 8.54 million visa-free visits have been made to China in the first half of this year, accounting for more than 50% of all inbound visits, and up by 190.1% year-on-year.

Besides the substantial rise in visits, the demographics of international visitors have also diversified. Many “elderly tour groups” chose to travel in China, embellishing their retirement lives with the country’s profound history and charming sceneries. Children and teenagers can also be seen everywhere with their parents, enjoying Chinese gourmet foods, buying figurines, immersing themselves in a different lifestyle, and feeling the vibe of an energetic China.

Previously, there were international tourists who complained about how they were troubled by the trendy cashless payment in China. A few months have passed, now most tourists from other countries can just swipe their own bank cards around many places in China. There are also many travel destinations in the country that provide considerate guidance, from SIM card registration, mobile payment binding, to hotel bookings.

Upon an easy and smooth entry, bilingual signs can be seen everywhere, and there are also hospitable Chinese residents who are always there to lend a hand, plus with the help of translation-via-camera apps, one can get around in China without too much inconvenience caused by language. With the language barrier out of the way, experience comes next — the handy and efficient subways and high-speed trains, accessible products and services under various scenarios with surprisingly abundant choices, plus the unique atmosphere featuring an integration of historical profoundness and modern zeal, urging those who have been to China recommend the country to their families and friends. With “China Travel” leading a trend on social media, it’s only natural for so many international tourists to flock to China.

While inbound visits have seen such hustle and bustle, similar scenes also occurred for domestic tourists. Official statistics show that during the National Day holiday, Chinese domestic tourists spent a total of 700.81 billion RMB, 7.9% up compared to 2019, before the pandemic. What’s especially worth noting is that, during this holiday, many third, fourth, and fifth-tier cities, as well as counties, have shown great vibrancy. On only one of the many travel booking platforms in China, more than 40% of the long-distance outbound travel orders came from residents living in the lower-tier cities and counties, which proves travel to be an increasingly ordinary demand for more and more people. Moreover, as the counties in China see higher-quality development, their infrastructure have also improved, drawing more tourists to travel in the counties, even becoming a new trend.

Behind larger tourist numbers and greater diversity of destinations, people can see a more open and vigorous economic environment, which also resonates with people’s confidence in the future.

China Mosaic

http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

Busy inbound and outbound travels testify to greater economic vitality in China

http://www.china.org.cn/video/2024-10/18/content_117493061.htm

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SOURCE China.org.cn

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Mila Health Launches AI-Powered Provider Assistant to Close Care Gaps

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Mila improves patient outcomes, lowers no-show rates and communication burden

SEATTLE, Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Mila Health, a leader in healthcare artificial intelligence (AI), announced today the launch of Mila, a state-of-the-art, AI-powered provider assistant that automates patient-provider interactions and closes patients’ care gaps.

Healthcare providers use Mila to autonomously guide patients to manage chronic and other conditions, lowering no-show rates while reducing manual effort. Mila engages patients with empathy, uses behavior change techniques to nudge patients, addresses open-ended questions accurately, learns from past conversations, and motivates them to comply with care plans. Mila integrates with EMRs for seamless provider workflows.  

Increasing patients’ adherence to care plans, such as annual wellness visits and procedures, improves the quality of care, decreases costs, and drives revenue. However, implementing patient-outreach programs requires manual operations, which are expensive and inconsistent. Mila resolves these issues for providers by using AI to autonomously reach out to patients to schedule their appointments, closing care gaps by more than 25% over existing baselines.

Several provider organizations, including Aayu Clinic, MIMIT Health, and Best Practices Inpatient Care, already have deployed Mila to enhance adherence, save staff time, and improve patient outcomes.

“Mila reaches out to patients and communicates in an engaging and effective way to automatically schedule appointments for the practice,” said Dr. Abhijit Shinde, MD, CEO of Aayu Clinic.  “We have increased appointments and patient adherence by 25% and reduced the time my staff spends making outreach calls by 10 hours per week. That’s crucial, since we have over 26,000 patients who need to be contacted and scheduled to meet our HEDIS quality measures. In the past, we sent letters or called patients, both expensive and ineffective methods. Mila, in turn, has been amazing.” 

“At MIMIT Health, we have several clinics that conduct hundreds of procedures per month,” said Dr. Paramjit Chopra, MD, CEO of the physician group. “We need to prepare patients for their procedures and then follow-up with them to ensure that they are adhering to their care plans. Previously, this process was manual. Today, we have integrated Mila Health into our Salesforce Health Cloud, from which we trigger automated tasks to Mila, such as scheduling follow-ups for patients past due for checkups. Mila autonomously completes the task, and when needed, automatically opens a ticket on the appropriate Slack channel. Thanks to Mila, we have saved hours of manual call operations, enabling us to prioritize our patients’ clinical needs over cumbersome administrative tasks.” 

“Mila’s AI-based automation has reduced no-show rates by more than 50%, driving down readmission and significantly improving patient health outcomes,” said Dr. Jeff Kreamer, MD, CEO of Best Practices Inpatient Care. “We discharge over a hundred patients a day from hospitals in the Chicago area and, previously, we manually called and sent scripted text reminders to ensure patient follow-up. Now, Mila autonomously calls patients to guide them in transitioning from their in-patient visits.”

“Manually delivering value-based care is costing the U.S. $234 billion annually in lost revenue, avoidable readmissions, and burnout on clinicians and staff. We are building Mila to be the most engaging assistant to deliver value-based care,” said Shailu Verma, CEO and co-founder of Mila Health. “We are building Mila to automate comprehensive post-visit care management, including symptom tracking, medication adherence, appointment management, and logistics coordination related to Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), such as scheduling transportation and care companions.”

About Mila Health
Mila Health is an innovative healthcare company from Swan AI Studios. Mila Health’s mission is to empower every individual to a better health outcome with personalized and trusted guidance. Mila is an AI-powered provider assistant that uses behavior change techniques, empathy, and nudges to engage and guide patients in their care journeys before and following visits. Patients can ask Mila questions and get clinically validated care instructions and educational resources when they need them – without additional provider involvement. To learn more, visit milahealth.com.

Media Contact:
Philip Anast (Amendola for Mila Health)
312-576-6990
panast@acmarketingpr.com

 

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SOURCE Mila Health

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BE OPEN Art launches the last regional competition of 2024 to support emerging artists of Southern Africa

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LONDON, Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — BE OPEN Art, an online gallery set up by Elena Baturina’s humanitarian think-tank BE OPEN, continues to run BE OPEN Regional Art, the regional competition for emerging artists aimed to support those whose art best represents their regional, cultural and ethnic identities.

Throughout 2024, the BE OPEN expert community will continue selecting those artists who best represent the artistic tradition of a certain region to feature in the BE OPEN Art gallery and offer them greater visibility.

The fourth stage of the second year of the programme run will cover the countries of Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The stage will traditionally last three months, and the regional winner for Southern Africa will be announced and awarded 500 euro at the end of December 2024. In the meantime, artworks by 20 emerging artists from the listed countries will be posted at the online gallery every month, and a public vote will select the Regional Artist of the Month. At the end of the stage, one of the monthly winners will become the Artist of the Region, based on the amount of votes by the public and the BE OPEN art community members.

The regional competition runs alongside the regular ongoing work of BE OPEN Art, whose experts every month select 20 new artists for the gallery, using online voting to name the Artist of the Month and the Artist of the Year. 

Aiming to support emerging talent, BE OPEN Art selects artists at an early stage of their career who emphasize social consciousness and aesthetical solutions to the wrongs of the contemporary world. The project sees its mission in looking for new influencers in the art scene, and invites everyone to contribute.

BE OPEN is a global initiative to foster creativity and innovation, a think-tank whose mission is to promote people and ideas today to build solutions for tomorrow. It is a cultural and social initiative supported by Austria-based international philanthropist and businessperson Elena Baturina.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/be-open-art-launches-the-last-regional-competition-of-2024-to-support-emerging-artists-of-southern-africa-302280498.html

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NASA, Artemis Accords Signatories Progress on Sustainable Exploration

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A record number of Artemis Accords signatories, including the United States, gathered at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world’s largest global space conference taking place in Milan this week, furthering discussions on the safe and responsible use of space for the benefit of all.

During the space conference, top space agency leaders and other government representatives met Oct. 14 to continue advancing implementation of the Artemis Accords, marking the most comprehensive engagement yet among Accords signatories.

“As we send humans further into the solar system, collaboration and shared responsibility among nations are more critical than ever,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “The Artemis Accords provide a common sense set of principles to guide our work together, and our recent efforts to further their implementation is fostering a remarkable environment of trust and cooperation where all nations can contribute to and benefit from these endeavors.”

The high-level meeting was co-chaired by NASA, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) and Italian Space Agency. With 42 of 45 signatories participating, established and emerging spacefaring nations from every region of the world were represented to help create a foundation for future space exploration for the Artemis Generation.

Leaders from each nation reflected on how the group can contribute to and advance existing multilateral forums, further technical discussions to inform policy deliberations, and promote and encourage the participation of emerging space nations including the adoption of the Artemis Accords by additional countries. They agreed on recommendations on non-interference, interoperability, release of scientific data, long-term sustainability guidelines, and registration to advance implementing the Artemis Accords. A method of operations was established for the ongoing work of the signatories.

“Promoting the participation of emerging space nations and encouraging the adoption of the Artemis Accords is crucial for the entire space,” said Teodoro Valente, president of the Italian Space Agency. “This is a matter of strategic importance in order to ensure the active and meaningful engagement of emerging space nations, both those already part of the Artemis Accords, and those poised to join in the future.”

The conversation in Milan built on previous work during a workshop in Montreal in May 2024, where participants delved into the topics such as non-interference and interoperability.

Canada is pleased to be part of a growing group of countries committed to the safety and sustainability of outer space activities,” said Lisa Campbell, CSA president. “We are strong supporters of the Artemis Accords and are pleased to have hosted the most recent workshop that advanced work on key aspects of the Artemis Accords. We look forward to continuing this important work in the coming months and years.”

In October 2023, signatories agreed on an initial set of mission data parameters to advance transparency and non-interference in conducting space activities. The data parameters identify relevant information about planned lunar surface missions including expected launch dates, the general nature of activities, and landing locations. Recent progress also included work on a database to house them. Several space agencies, including NASA, have submitted mission data to the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs for dissemination.

Potential focus areas for the next year include further advancing sustainability, including debris management for both lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.

In 2020, the United States and seven other nations were the first to sign the Artemis Accords, which identified a set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for humanity. The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data. 

The commitments of the Artemis Accords and efforts by the signatories to advance implementation of these principles support the safe and sustainable exploration of space.

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords/ 

 

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SOURCE NASA

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