The Peking University Organ Transplant Center was founded on October 10, 2001. It incorporated related departments from five medical institutions, including Peking University First Hospital, Peking University People’s Hospital, and Peking University Third Hospital. The center specializes in transplantation of liver, kidney, pancreas, heart, cornea, bone marrow, and other organs. It claims to be the largest and most academically advanced in China, with its liver transplant capabilities in a leading position in the Beijing region. 29
In September 2013, Zhu Jiye, director of the Peking University Organ Transplant Institute and director of the hepatobiliary surgery department at Peking University People’s Hospital, told China Economic Weekly, “Our hospital conducted 4,000 liver and renal transplant operations within a particular year, and all of the organs were from prisoners sentenced to death.” 30
The hospital’s Hepatobiliary Surgery website claims that the quantity and quality of its liver transplants rank first among medical units in the northern region. It also ranks first in the success rate of liver transplants in Beijing.31
However, its current website shows that it has completed just over 600 total liver transplants since 2000, when the liver transplant program was started under the leadership of Professor Zhu Jiye and Lin Xixing, with an annual average of fewer than 40 cases. But according to its renal transplant website as of July 2014, the center has conducted nearly 510 kidney transplants since April 1991.32 There is a large discrepancy between the total of 1,100 liver and kidney transplants in the past decade and the above-mentioned annual figures disclosed by Zhu Jiye. It also does not match its own status of “ranking first in quantity among medical units in the northern region.”
Its website also claims that this department has held a position of renown in the field of hepatobiliary surgery for a number of years. It belongs to the national 211 Project under the Ministry of Education and is a key
specialist discipline of the Ministry of Health, a key discipline in Beijing, the National Board of Education doctoral discipline, Beijing key laboratory, Peking University Institute of Organ Transplantation, and Liver Cancer Research Center of Peking University.
The department has 8 professors, 6 associate professors, 4 attending physicians, and 1 resident. It includes two doctoral advisors and 5 master’s advisors. It has undertaken a numberof Ministry of Health professional programs, the national research projects of 863, 973 and 985 Programs, the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of China during the 9th to 12th Five-Year Plan, National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the National Natural Science Foundation, etc.
The department has a number of experts who participate in national organ transplant legislation. Its director Zhu Jiye represented China several times in the World Health Organization’s Organ Transplantation conferences. The department has also organized a number of international and national academic transplant conferences. It has held four national workshops on liver transplantation and trained a large number of liver transplant specialists across the country.
The Peking University Organ Transplant Center has advanced liver and kidney transplantation at the Health Science Center’s three general hospitals. As a result, its liver transplantation has remained in a leading position in the Beijing area.
To date, the Center has received more than 1.5 million RMB in funding from the 973 Program, the National Natural Science Foundation, the Ministry of Education Doctoral Station Foundation, and other national and provincial-level science and technology funds. These hospitals have published a batch of high-caliber clinical basic research papers domestically and internationally, and they rank among the top transplant centers in China.33