This large-scale general teaching hospital has a century of history.105 It has 1,800 beds and 593 professors, associate professors, or professionals with senior titles. It hosts 14 second-level doctorate research stations, 24 master’s research stations, 112 doctoral advisors, and 169 master’s advisors. It was the first in China to perform heart and liver transplants in the 1970s.106 It ranked sixth among the 100 most competitive hospitals in China in 2015.107
Rui Jin Hospital was the first in China to perform clinical liver transplants in 1977. Its Organ Transplant Center has conducted large quantities of liver, kidney, combined liver-kidney, pancreas-kidney, and other challenging multi-organ transplants.108
The center’s director, Peng Chenghong, has conducted in-depth research in liver transplantation. In July 2001, Peng conducted China’s first split liver transplant (SLT).109 The surgery was listed in the year’s top ten news in Chinese Medicine.
In 2004, it became the first in Shanghai to perform combined small intestine and liver transplants. In December 2004, it carried out the first combined seven-organ transplant in Asia and set many records in China.110 It was again listed in the year’s top ten news in Chinese Medicine.
The Rui Jin Organ Transplant Center was established in February 2003, and it has a large group of top transplant experts. Hospital president Li Hongwei was named leader of the academic discipline and formed a comprehensive, capable transplant team with nationally known expert Peng Chenghong, Yin Lu, Xu Da, Wang Xianghui, and others. By 2007, the center had 57 beds, including 14 ICU beds.111
The center has 22 surgeons, including 16 chief and associate chief surgeons, 4 PhD advisors, and 5 master’s advisors. Each year, the department sends personnel to study in France, the United States, Germany, Japan, and other countries and bring the latest knowledge and techniques back to China.
The transplant center cooperates closely with the Henri Bismuth Hepatobiliary Institute in France, the Beaujon Hospital Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation Department in France, and the University of Pittsburgh Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in the United States. Its transplantation pathology laboratory is equipped with a remote consultation system connected to the Starzl Institute, enhancing the diagnosis of difficult cases.112