Industrialization and Proliferation

Organ transplantation in China began in 1960.¹ Kidney transplantation experiments were expanded nationwide in the 1970s. By the late 1990s, around 80 kidney transplant facilities had been opened nationwide, each averaging less than 20 annual operations.

Since 2000, a large number of national and military transplantation medical technology research centers and key research laboratories have been established, incubating new transplant technologies and leading the rapid development of the transplant industry.

Shen Zhongyang, the director of both Tianjin Oriental Organ Transplant Center and the Liver Transplant Institute of the Armed Police General Hospital, overcame a major obstacle in liver transplantation in China by developing an integrated prevention system that reduced the recurrence rate of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) after liver transplants from over 80% to under 5%.²

Shen has helped 66 medical facilities in 22 regions carry out clinical liver transplants, trained 200 transplant professionals, and spread the “pinnacle of transplantation technology.” In July 2006, Shen’s center was sponsored by the China Medical Board (CMB, a private foundation based in the US) and became a “National Liver Transplant Training Center.” It has trained 385 doctors who have since led organ transplant departments in other hospitals in performing huge number of transplants.³

Additionally, the Transplant Medicine Engineering and Technology Research Center, affiliated with the Ministry of Health, was officially established at the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. Its mission was to build an important national base specializing in clinical transplantation medical research and related industry development. The center also collaborated with the World Health Organization and the International Xenotransplantation Association to develop international xenograft norms (the Changsha Standard).⁴ The center received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation and other key projects in clinical disciplines from the Ministry of Health. The hospital also concentrated manpower, material, and financial resources to industrialize related research results.

Spread of Organ Transplantation

The Ministry of Health guides some military and civilian medical institutions with strong technical capabilities as well as large organ transplant centers to conduct clinical teaching and practice, establish technical transplant training sites, and promote new transplantation technologies. A large number of transplant doctors have been trained in a short time to meet the needs of the rapid growth of China’s transplant industry.

Case Study: Mobile Heart Transplant Hospital

Liao Chongxian founded the heart center at Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University. Based on his experience in the United States, Liao created a “mobile heart transplant hospital” model and travelled around the country to instruct and personally participate in heart transplants.⁵ The center’s website says that the department performs heart transplants on a large scale and has helped more than twenty Class 3 Grade A hospitals to perform heart transplants in the past 10 years.

As of 2004, more than 75 heart transplant recipients had received their transplants from his hospital.⁶

Case Study: A “New Era” of Lung Transplants

The lung transplant center at Wuxi People’s Hospital claims to have completed more than half of all lung transplant surgeries in the country.⁷ It was reported in July 2014 that the team under its founder, Chen Jingyu, often completed four or five lung transplants a day.⁸

Chen led his team to spread its advanced techniques to more than thirty 3A hospitals in more than ten cities and provinces, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, and Jilin.⁹ Chen’s profile stated, “A new era of lung transplantation in China has begun, and Chen’s team has filled in many gaps in this area.”¹⁰

Case Study: Spreading Advances in Liver Transplantation

Zheng Shusen served as the academic lead of the transplant center at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. He was among the first in China to use a non-venous bypass technique to reduce bleeding, transfusions, surgery time, ICU time, and cost. His award-winning innovations in liver and multi-organ transplants have been put into use all over the country.¹¹

The hospital has helped develop transplantation at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University, Zhongshan Hospital of Xiamen University, and other institutions.¹²

First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University has also established remote diagnostic systems with the First Hospital of Zhejiang Province and other hospitals in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and other areas. Its transplant capabilities radiate to more than 20 provinces and cities in China and have propelled the development of the country’s organ transplant industry.¹³

Case Study: Building a Remote Medical Network through Military Satellites

No. 181 Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command spent 250,000 RMB in early 2005 to build a remote medical network through military satellites, connecting over 200 military hospitals and more than 1,000 experts. This remote treatment model provides patients with a platform for accessing high-end medical resources.¹⁴

No. 181 Hospital’s PLA Kidney Transplant Center performed 8 transplant surgeries on December 30, 2012 alone, including heart, lung, kidney, liver, corneal, and islet cell transplants. Although this hospital is not qualified to conduct heart transplants, it conducted experiments and clinical research in heart transplantation using a “partially continuous beating technique”. The technique has reached an advanced level internationally and has been applied extensively in other hospitals.¹⁵

Training Transplant Specialists to Keep Up with Demand

We found that many leading institutions have been selected by the Ministry of Health to train a large number of transplant specialists for hospitals nationwide.

In June 2006, Huang Jiefu cooperated with the China Medical Board (CMB) in New York to provide one million USD to assist in the establishment of transplant standard and registration systems, domestic laws and regulations regarding transplantation in China, strengthening professional training, and expanding liver transplant-related research achievements. The project established three liver transplant training centers in China, the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, and Tianjin First Center Hospital.¹⁶

In 2003, Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Terasaki Laboratory in the United States jointly established the Organ Transplants Tissue Typing Technology Training Center in northwestern China. By December 2012, this center had guided more than 10,000 kidney transplants for 23 hospitals in 13 provinces. It guided other hospitals in liver, kidney, heart, lung, and small intestine transplants in western China. It trained more than 500 medical professionals from other domestic institutions, with some of them becoming academic leaders.¹⁷ Since 2000, this center has held annual programs for continuing education in kidney transplantation for students from large general hospitals in 14 provinces and autonomous regions.¹⁸

References