This was formerly the Shanxi Provincial Hospital of Occupational Diseases. Its Kidney Transplant and Dialysis Center was founded in October 199785 and has since become the largest, best-equipped, and most technologically advanced transplant center in the province. It ranked among the top 20 in the same discipline for five consecutive years. The center has 90 beds, plus 21 beds in its intensive care unit and claims it has performed total of 1,300 kidney transplants. 86

The founder of the center Wu Xiaotong, often spends 12 hours a day performing transplant surgeries, one after another, and filled several gaps in the field of kidney transplantation in Shanxi Province. Wu helped formulate the Chinese Cardiac Death Organ Donation Guide. He is a standing committee member of the Chinese Medical Association’s Organ Transplant Society and chairman of the Shanxi Organ Transplantation Professional Committee. He is an editor of the Chinese Journal of Transplantation and the Organ Transplantation journal, has published dozens of articles, and manages multiple provincial and ministerial-level research projects.87

The center’s chief surgeon Wang Zhenxing, associate chief surgeon Zhou Hua, Shi Genyu, attending surgeon Sun Yongkang, Chen Hua, Hao Xiaojun, and Yang Jun are all kidney transplant specialists with more than ten years of experience in the field. Zhou Hua has himself performed more than 500 kidney transplants.88

A paper published by deputy director Wang Zhenxing89 mentioned that the hospital performed 925 kidney transplants between 1992 and 2008.90 In another paper, he wrote that 1,263 kidney transplants were performed between 1992 and 2012.91 We call these figures into question, as conducting 100 transplants each year would require no more than 10 beds.

The cost for a kidney transplant at this center is about 100,000 RMB. Its gross revenue in 2005 reached 250 million RMB. In August 2006, the center recorded over 100 patients waiting for transplants at any given time. On August 15 alone, the center conducted 11 kidney transplants.92

The center has consistently hosted annual kidney transplantation conferences in Shanxi Province. In October 2010, it hosted the 2010 National Organ Transplantation Academic Conference. It also hosted the 2012 Chinese Medical Association’s Urologic Surgery Subconference and National Kidney Transplantation Academic Conference.