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Cardiac Surgery Theatre in China vs. in the US: Cardiac Repair Procedures, Medical Devices in Use, Technology in Hospitals, Surgeons’ Training and Cardiac Disease Severity”

 Interviewer: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Article ID #11: Cardiac Surgery Theatre in China vs. in the US: Cardiac Repair Procedures, Medical Devices in Use, Technology in Hospitals, Surgeons’ Training and Cardiac Disease Severity”. Published on 1/8/2013

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

First segment: Interview with Dr. LCR, Cardiac Surgeon,

Interviews with Scientific Leaders Series

This is the first segment on this subject, in the Interviews with Scientific Leaders Series on our Open Access Online Scientific Journal.

This Segment and the following to be published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal, are based on an e-mail exchange with a prominent Cardiac Surgeon who worked in the US and in China in Cardiac Surgery Theatres. The identity of the surgeon, I shall conceal. The opening segment provides background, the volume of procedures and the general overview of the medical devices in use.

Following segments will be based on an exchange of Question and Answers (Q&A) which I will be presenting to our Surgeon interviewee and his answers to these specific questions.

I plan to cover the following topics:

• Cardiac Repair Procedures
• Medical Devices in Use
• Technology in Hospitals
• Surgeons’ Training and
• Cardiac Disease Severity

Background

Dr. LCR, M.D., F.R.C.S.(C), F.A.C.S., Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery is the Cardiac Surgeon in this Interview with Scientific Leaders.

Dr. LCR was born in Hong Kong, SAR, China and came to the US in 1972 for higher education and became a US citizen since 1979.  He is a US medical school graduate, trained general surgeon (ABS re-certified till 12/2014) and Canadian trained cardiothoracic surgeon (ABTS re-certified till 12/2021). Dr. LCR is also a Fellow of The American College of Surgeons (F.A.C.S.) and an active member of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) since 1996. He practiced cardiothoracic and vascular surgery in the US between 1992 and 2007 when he accepted the invitation of the Foreign Experts Bureau of the Chinese government to teach/work cardiovascular surgery in China and has just returned to the US two month ago.

During those five and a half years in China, Dr. LCR worked at some of the top and largest cardiovascular programs (West China Hospital of Sichuan University at the city of Chengdu, 1,700 cardiac cases/year.

Dr. LCR worked in Guangdong Provincial Cardiovascular Institute at the city of Guangzhou, the third or fourth largest cardiac program in China, with 3,792 cardiac cases in 2011).

Dr. LCR has also authored or co-authored at least 6 scientific articles when he was in China, all published in the US cardiac journals.

Dr. LCR speaks two Chinese dialects fluently and read and write Chinese at an advanced level.

Below, we present the personal observation and opinions regarding “How the Operating Rooms (OR) are equipped and run in China and the US.”

Dr. LCR was professor of thoracic surgery at West China Hospital of Sichuan University from 06/2007 to 04/2008), the largest hospital in China, with 4,200 beds on one campus (there are three other campuses).

The hospital has 80 some OR’s and the out-patient department saw 2.5 million out-patients the year he was there.  The department of Cardiac Surgery performed 1,700 cardiac surgical cases in 2007, with 4 OR’s.

All the major US cardiac surgery vendors were represented, prosthetic heart valves, sutures,etc.. For some “Reason” we only used St. Jude Medical‘s mechanical valves, and we must have put in more than 1,200 to 1,400 valves. They were sold to the Chinese patients the same price as they were sold in the US, about US$ 3,000 each (or 21,00 CNY), about 3.6 million USD of biz for St. Jude, just from a division of the hospital.

The top two heart surgery centers are located in Beijing. Fuwei hospital did 9,700 heart surgery, and the other Aszhen hospital did close to 6,000 in 2011.

The last hospital Dr. LCR worked for as an attending/consultant surgeon until September 2012, The Guangdong Provincial General Hospital (2,400 beds)-The Guangdong Provincial Cardiovascular Institute (480 beds) is probably the third or fourth largest heart surgery center in China, did 3,782 cardiac surgical cases in 2011, most likely exceeded 4,000 in 2012.

If you add the coronary stents put in by the cardiologists in China , the biz for the medical device vendors is immense. For every one coronary bypass we did, the cardiologists must have inserted 20 or more stents. Without a doubt — China is and will be the biggest market for a lot of things, including medical devices, and you are going to the right place. Good luck.

The Next segment will present Dr. LCR’s answers to specific questions I will be e-mailing him of the following topics:

• Cardiac Repair Procedures
• Medical Devices in Use
• Technology in Hospitals
• Surgeons’ Training and
• Cardiac Disease Severity