This hospital serves as the Cardiovascular Disease Clinical College of Tianjin Medical University. The Heart and Great Vessels Surgery Department was among the first in Tianjin to carry out heart and combined heart-kidney transplants. It was established on September 26, 2003 with 500 beds.605 It has 16 physicians, including 7 chief physicians, 4 associate chief physicians, and 4 attending physicians. Two of them hold doctoral degrees, and 9 have master’s degrees.606
The hospital’s president, Liu Xiaocheng, is a well-known cardiovascular surgery expert, professor, and PhD advisor. He receives special allowances from the State Council. Liu studied heart surgery at Prince Charles Hospital in Australia in 1984. In 1987, he founded Mudanjiang Cardiovascular Disease Hospital. In July 1992, he performed heart transplants for two late-stage heart disease patients in six days. In December of the same year, he performed China’s first combined heart-lung transplant. In 2001, he began to build the TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital and completed China’s second combined heart-kidney transplant.607
Professor Liu Zhigang, the hospital’s vice president and chief physician of the heart surgery department, trained at multiple internationally renowned heart centers in the United States. He has engaged in heart surgery for over 20 years and participated in more than 5,000 heart and great vessel surgeries of various types. He has completed more than 3,000 surgeries as lead surgeon, covering procedures for virtually all congenital and acquired heart diseases, including heart transplants.608
Chen Tienan, chief physician of the heart surgery department, joined TEDA in 2003. Since 2005, he has fully participated in heart and heart-kidney transplants, as well as perioperative management. He has completed more than 2,500 surgeries as lead surgeon and participated in over 5,000 cardiovascular surgeries of various types. He studied in Germany in 2009 and Japan in 2014.609
Associate chief physician Guo Zhipeng has participated in over 3,000 heart surgeries in ten years. He studied heart transplantation techniques at the Indiana University Methodist Hospital in the United States.610
According to Northern Economic Times, this hospital completed a combined heart-kidney transplant and an orthotopic heart transplant for two patients on April 28, 2006 and July 6, 2006, respectively.611