Jinan University was established in 1906 as the Highest Institution for Overseas Chinese. Due to the needs of Chinese overseas and in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan who return to China for medical treatment, the government specially approved the construction of Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Hospital, which is also the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University. The hospital has 241 senior professional staff, including 50 PhD advisors, 149 master’s advisors, 511 staff with master’s degrees and PhDs, and over 160 who have studied abroad. It has 2,000 beds.398
The urologic surgery department performed its first kidney transplant in 1993, established a kidney transplant department in 1997, and changed its name to the ‘Organ Transplant Center’ in 2003. It specializes in kidney, liver, pancreas, and other types of transplants. Its kidney transplantation leads the province. 399 400
On December 9, 2012, the hospital’s new 19-story, 1,300-bed ward building became operational. It contains the organ transplant center, urologic and cardiothoracic surgery departments, and the VIP ward. It has 20 laminar-flow operating rooms meeting international standards.401 402
Its VIP patient rooms mirror hotel standards and have various high-end medical facilities to satisfy the expectations of high-end patients from within China and other countries. The hospital has an international medical department and can provide medical treatment, health care, and rehabilitation services for personnel of state agencies, foreign guests, VIPs, and patients from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.403
The hospital’s website does not currently contain information about its organ transplant center. According to an introduction from March 2009, the department had 62 beds and 14 senior, 7 intermediate, and 26 junior technical personnel. They include 3 doctoral advisors, 5 master’s advisors, 8 in-service PhDs, and 7 members with master’s degrees. In the five years prior, it had undertaken two research projects under the National Natural Science Foundation that total to 510,000 RMB. Its “Basic and Clinical Research in the Application of Organ Transplantation” won a second-prize science and technology development award from the Ministry of Education.404
Professor Su Zexuan at the center is the vice chairman of the Guangdong Medical Association Organ Transplant Subcommittee. His team have conducted a series of basic and clinical research in kidney, liver-kidney, and pancreas-kidney transplantation. The team has explored the modeling of liver-kidney-pancreas cluster transplants in animals, establishing a solid foundation for multi-organ transplantation. He has published 103 articles in domestic and international journals and edited 3 monographs, including Modern Transplantation.405
Chief physician Chen Jie is a member of the Guangdong Medical Association Organ Transplant Subcommittee. He pursued a PhD and studied clinical transplantation in the transplant surgery department at Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He then studied kidney transplantation at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University. His specializations include allogeneic kidney transplants and postoperative follow-up and treatment of infections. He has also conducted research in increasing the quality and long-term survival and function of organs from brain-dead donors.406
Ding Hongwen has been engaged in organ transplantation since July 1997. Ding had studied at the Department of Kidney Transplantation at Nanfang Hospital of the First Military Medical University and the Organ Transplantation Center at First People’s Hospital of Tianjin. Ding specializes in prevention and treatment of postoperative complications following liver and kidney transplants.407