This is the largest hospital specializing in clinical hepatobiliary disease in China. Its liver transplant center was established in 2003 and serves as a PhD student training base in surgery for Capital Medical University. The center jointly founded the Sino-American Liver Transplantation Center with the University of Pittsburgh Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute. It also established collaborative relationships with a dozen well-known liver transplant centers in China.63
The center has 86 medical staff, including 2 doctoral advisors, 4 master’s advisors, 14 PhDs, and 14 with master’s degrees. Liver transplantation is its most significant specialty. It has become the largest liver transplant center in Beijing and leads in the country in its annual liver transplant volume and survival rate.64
In June 2014, Zang Yunjin, president of the Armed Police General Hospital, joined the medical team at YouAn Hospital. YouAn Hospital stated that it would build a first-class liver transplant center in Beijing with the help of Zang Yunjin. By then, Zang already conducted 1,570 kidney transplants and 22 kidney-liver transplants.65
Lu Shichun, former director of the hospital’s liver transplant center and a doctoral advisor, claimed to have led over 700 liver transplants.66 In 1995, he received a PhD in abdominal surgery and organ transplantation from the University of Freiburg in Germany. In 2004, he moved from West China Hospital of Sichuan University to YouAn Hospital and became the director of its hepatobiliary surgery department, liver transplant center, and the China-U.S. Cooperative Liver Transplant Center. He is currently the director of the hepatobiliary surgery department under the PLA No. 301 General Hospital’s clinical surgery division.
He revealed in a media interview in 2012 the fee for liver transplants differs among transplant units and averages around 400,000 to 500,000 RMB. Patients who recover relatively quickly can be discharged in two weeks; those who develop complications or experience otherwise unsuccessful recoveries may need to stay longer.67
President Li Ning is a leader of the liver transplant discipline in the Beijing area. China News reported in 2010 that he has led over 500 liver transplants over the past 10 years.68 69 However, at the time this report was written, the hospital’s website claimed that he has led 200 liver transplants,70 300 fewer than the 2010 figure.