People aged 18 to 35 account for a 16% increase in the proportion of sudden cardiac death over 10 years. Chinese Academy of Engineering Academician Yang Baofeng: The main factors are high stress, busy work, poor rest, and tension.

Each Daily Reporter｜Zhang Rui    Each Daily Editor｜Yang Jun

From March 25 to 29, the 5-day Zhongguancun Forum was held in Beijing. Yang Baofeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Harbin Medical University, delivered a report titled “2025 Global Engineering Frontiers: Assessment and Interpretation” at his “Engineering Science and Technology Innovation Forum.”

During the above forum, Yang Baofeng accepted an interview with a reporter from The Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as NBD).

Yang Baofeng is a well-known pharmacologist in China. For decades, he has focused deeply on the field of cardiovascular pharmacology. He combines academic expertise with management experience. He previously served as the president of Harbin Medical University for 17 years, promoting the development of pharmacological research and medical education in China through rigorous scholarship and an international perspective.

In the interview, Yang Baofeng affirmed the positive impact brought by the application of AI (artificial intelligence) in the medical field, but also candidly said, “To truly treat illness, you still have to go to the hospital.”

Yang Baofeng said that although AI can bring us many conveniences and efficiencies in health, data quality still needs to be improved, for example, some data is confidential, and the quality of the data varies widely—some comes from national key laboratories, and some from industry experts, frontline doctors, or small clinics. In addition, it is necessary to have data on negative results. In the future, the problem of data silos will also need to be addressed. This requires close cooperation between the government and the scientific and technological community and common development.

On AI applications:

No model can solve all problems

NBD: When you say data silos, do you mainly mean that data between hospitals doesn’t interoperate?

Yang Baofeng: Not only between hospitals—data between enterprises also doesn’t interoperate. For example, suppose a company finds a good material, or a good chemical structural formula; can it let everyone know? Everyone is a large pharmaceutical company and needs to conduct innovation drug R&D and creation. Some companies don’t even apply for patents for a certain period of time. That is, from a micro perspective.

From a macro perspective, data between different countries will never be fully interoperable either, unless the whole world becomes one country.

NBD: I noticed that you’ve long been committed to research on cardiovascular drugs. The industry is also talking about AI for Science (AI empowers scientific research). What is the current state of AI’s applications in drug development?

Yang Baofeng: AI has been applied in drug development for a while now. For example, if I want to research a drug, I ask the AI what drugs the market lacks and which diseases are the hardest to treat, and the AI will give you an answer. But the answer provided by AI still needs to be validated through joint discussion and verification by experts in clinical medicine, basic medicine, and pharmacy.

For example, if I want to design a drug structure that acts on different receptors, the AI will provide a structure design proposal. However, different AI models may give different answers to the same question; even when using the same model, the results may still differ depending on the education background of the person asking and the country they belong to. For example, AlphaFold (a series of AI models) is suitable for molecular structure prediction, while Doubao is excellent at text processing. Researchers can choose different tools according to their needs; each tool has its own characteristics and advantages. There is still no one model that can solve all problems.

AI is like a high-quality review article or reference book: it can quickly provide the content you need and can be repeatedly optimized according to your needs. Overall, AI has indeed brought great benefits to humans and across industries. For researchers, it can shorten development and data collection time and reduce labor and material resource costs. But at its core, it is the integration and distillation of existing knowledge. To achieve truly innovative breakthroughs, it still depends on in-depth research and thinking by top scientists and interdisciplinary teams.

On sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin:

Currently, it cannot be detected** through health check screenings

NBD: The death of Zhang Xuefeng has drawn widespread attention to sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin. Is there any drug that can prevent or treat sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin?

Yang Baofeng: One main cause of sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin is fatigue. Since Zhang Xuefeng was still relatively young, he might not have underlying conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia—if he did, they likely weren’t particularly severe. But with prolonged fatigue, and then during running, the sympathetic nervous system becomes overly excited—after the sympathetic nervous system is excited, blood vessels constrict, the heart becomes ischemic, and a sudden arrhythmia occurs, leading to sudden death. That’s the mechanism.

NBD: Is there a “life-saving drug” for sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin?

Yang Baofeng: If it’s the kind caused by vascular spasm, it will be very fast. If you have nitroglycerin-type medication with you, and you put it under your tongue, you can get through it within 30 seconds to 1 minute.

NBD: The “China Epidemiological Survey on Sudden Cardiac Death” shows that in our country, the number of sudden cardiac deaths of cardiac origin each year is about 550k, of which the proportion of people aged 18 to 35 increased from 12% in 2015 to 28% in 2024. As an expert in cardiovascular medicine, what do you think are the core driving factors behind this “younger” trend?

Yang Baofeng: The main factors are high pressure, busy work, poor rest, and tension. You need to tell young people not to stay up late; working through the night is not allowed. The work is never going to be finished, and at least you need to ensure 7 hours of sleep every day, otherwise fatigue is easy to build up. When the autonomic nervous system function becomes disordered, problems are more likely to occur. Of course, it’s okay occasionally, but ongoing tension and high pressure won’t work.

In addition, you should focus on a healthy lifestyle concept and lifestyle practices—control your diet and body weight, and fully exercise and rest. Zhang Xuefeng was during a running activity. If he had fatigue and poor rest in the previous few days, nervous system disorders would easily lead to problems.

NBD: Where is the boundary of “moderate exercise”? Especially for people who already have underlying cardiovascular diseases or high-risk factors, how do we define what counts as “moderate exercise”?

Yang Baofeng: This varies from person to person. Exercise is good—you should exercise. Running doesn’t necessarily lead to sudden death. For young people, middle-aged people, and even elderly people aged 60 or 65, it’s generally not a problem to stay active to a reasonable extent. But if someone’s heart has a problem, they should definitely pay attention to the intensity and amount of exercise.

NBD: For someone with this kind of hidden condition, who looks healthy, and suddenly has sudden death— is there a way to discover it in advance? For example, is it possible to detect it through health check screenings like tumor markers? Are there any markers to prevent sudden cardiac death of cardiac origin?

Yang Baofeng: Not yet. The most important thing is to control underlying conditions and ensure you get enough sleep—don’t be too exhausted.

Cover image source: Zhu Yu