Episode 08 of Healing with Benevolence Party Secretary MEl Wei of Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital

As the secretary of the Party committee of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, Prof. MEI Wei shoulders his own responsibility.He has been dedicated to the hospital development, discipline construction and talent cultivation, supporting young doctors embark on overseas studies and inviting leading medical experts to have academic exchange, which can optimize the talents team and jointly contribute to discipline development. Under his guidance, all professionals in Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital are united to achieve the goal of “making the hospital the top in Henan Province, the leader in Central China and the first-class in China”, persevering and collaborating towards excellence.

MEI Wei, the secretary of the Party committee of Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital, is a chief physician, also a postgraduate tutor with professional technical level II qualification. He is a leading talent with the reputation as a famous doctor in medical and health care in Central China, and the deputy to the Zhengzhou Municipal People's Congress, who enjoys the special allowances of Henan Province government.

Prof. MEI Wei has been specialized in the clinical work of spinal surgery for more than 30 years with rich diagnosis and treatment experience in spinal cord injury, congenital or acquired deformities of spine, tuberculosis and tumors of the spine, atlantoaxial diseases, cervical spondylosis disease, lumbar disc protrusion, thoracic and lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar spondylolisthesis, ankylosing spondylitis and other diseases. He pioneered in carrying out many new spinal surgery techniques in Henan Province.

1. Secretary Mei, please share with us the story between you and Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital.

I have been working at Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital for 34 years. This hospital is a specialized orthopedics hospital. I came here after my graduation from university in 1990. At that time, it had nine clinical orthopedics departments, involving eight specialties. With only 350 beds back then, we didn't have too many surgeries a day. Sometimes it was a dozen, sometimes less with only a couple. Although quite a few people from other provinces came to our hospital for its reputation, the number of surgeries we performed was quite limited due to the limitation on surgical techniques and perceptions as well as the overall team of talents. 

Zhengzhou Municipal Health Commission, which was also called Zhengzhou Health Bureau, launched a talent cultivation project called the Cross-Century Specialty Leader Project in 1995. At the end of the 1990s, 100 young talents of different specialties from different municipal medical institutions were selected and sent to renowned hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai to get advanced study under structured mentorship. Every individual went to a designated hospital to conduct a one-year clinical and scientific study project under the designated specialty, supervised by a renowned mentor. 

At first, I planned to study Orthopedic Trauma at Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, but I failed to reach out to a mentor. In the end, I got contact with Prof. CAI Qinlin from the Peking University Third Hospital. He is a distinguished expert with advanced knowledge of cervical spine surgery in China. At an early age, he studied in Japan and introduced expansive open-door laminoplasty (EOLP) to China. He was the first one to apply this technique in China, and he visited many Chinese hospitals to promote its application. 

I was lucky enough to learn from Prof. CAI and spent a year in studying at the Peking University Third Hospital. After I finished the project, I went back to Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital in 1998 and specialized in clinical practice, scientific research, and education of spine surgery. As an orthopedic surgeon, I have 34 years of professional experience, with 25 or 26 years focusing on spine surgery.

Since the 21st century, all of the technicians benefiting from that project have played a vital role in various hospitals, especially in spine surgery field which I focus on. Three doctors from our hospital have conducted an advanced study at Peking University Third Hospital under the Cross-Century Specialty Leader Project successively. After their return, techniques of spine surgery in our hospital achieved quite rapid development. 

In recent years, batch after batch of doctors from Spine Surgery Department of our hospital has come back to promote the advancement of this specialty after learning at home or abroad. Now we have five Spine Surgery Departments with an annual surgical volume of close to 8,000, accounting for a large amount of its kind in Henan Province. 

2. You have been honored as a "Leading Medical and Healthcare Talent in Central China", "One of the 100 Great Doctors in Zhengzhou for the First Session", "Top Professional Talent in Zhengzhou", and "Academic and Technical Leader in Zhengzhou". What do you feel about such titles?

These honors are a recognition of my past work, serving as a spur and encouragement as well. More importantly, I feel a sense of responsibility from them. Devoting myself to spine surgery for over 20 years, many difficulties and challenges I encountered in my career are still vivid in my mind. In retrospect, I have had my fair share of hardship in my whole development.

When I embarked on spine surgery, I had many shortcomings and deficiencies in both theoretical knowledge and clinical experience. For more than 20 years, thanks to the encouragement of Prof. Cai and the guidance of a large batch of specialists from my hospital, I got to perform various work and make some achievements.

But all these successes can only present the past. It is more important to find the motivation and inspiration for our following development. Especially after I joined the administrative personnel of the hospital, I came to realize that in addition to the continuous progress and development of myself, I should prioritize the development of the entire hospital and the cultivation of the talents of various specialties and teams. Therefore, it feels to me that more honors bring more responsibilities. The next step for me is to continuously improve myself and, more importantly, focus more on the overall strategic development of the hospital, the cultivation of various professional talent groups, and the construction of all specialties. 

We aim to enable more disciplines and specialties to become the key disciplines and key specialties at provincial and national levels. Then our young talents can have more platforms and wider views to develop various orthopedics specialties in our hospital. Consequently, we will be able to expand our influence, improve our service quality, and continuously provide technical guarantees for the Healthy Henan Initiative and Healthy China Initiative.

3. In recent years, Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital has been paying high attention to its international development and has invited internationally renowned experts to the hospital as visiting professors for many times.

As China expands opening-up over the years, international exchanges have increased. As an institution providing clinical services, Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital has been expanding the number and scope of exchanges. Particularly in recent years, we have sent many young doctors with excellent medical competence,  foreign language skills, and a global vision to developed countries in Europe and America for further studies and exchanges in various sub-specialties of orthopedics. Over the years, our international exchange platform has been upgraded and has witnessed an increase of exchanges and the improvement of exchange quality. Through international exchanges, we have opened up new vistas for young doctors and improved their communication skills in foreign languages. At the same time, we have also promoted our successful clinical experience to the globe, showing the strength and level of both our hospital and Chinese orthopedic surgeons. Through exchanges, we have learned many expertise and experience from our international colleagues. All these make our clinical treatment more precise and safer and enable us to promote our service capacity and level. 

Therefore, I think international exchanges are beneficial in many ways. Through the ongoing exchanges, the overall capacity and level of services can be largely enhanced, no matter in the healthcare system or in the public's mind. So next, we need to leverage the opportunities of international exchanges, keep it up, and do it well to lay a strong foundation for future exchanges so that our overall capacity of techniques can be developed, which in turn makes it possible for orthopedic doctors to give full play to their ability during exchanges.

4. Recently, Prof. Mehren, Deputy Medical Director of Schön Klinik München Harlaching, visited Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital as a visiting professor. How did his arrival influence the advancement of your hospital?

As we all know, Prof. Mehren, the Deputy Medical Director of Schön Klinik München Harlaching in Germany, is a world-class spine surgeon with great achievements in the research and clinical treatment of spinal diseases. His visit definitely injected impetus into the development of our hospital, especially the Spine Surgery Departments. Through the discussion of complex cases, outpatient consultation, ward rounds, surgical practice, etc., we perceived the good medical quality and techniques of German colleagues in spine surgeries. 

Therefore, I think, through Prof Mehren's week-long academic exchange, we can improve our clinical practice, theoretical and technical level, scientific research and teaching, etc.. This lays a solid foundation for us to develop international cutting-edge techniques of spine surgeries. 

In addition, we can see the good qualities in Prof. Mehren of practicality, dedication, and kindness that demonstrate his charm as an expert. Prof. Mehren has injected vitality into the development of our Spine Surgery Departments. Through this exchange with Prof. Mehren, we have established closer cooperation with and gained deeper insights from each other. Through constant exchanges, both parties can improve ourselves and our friendship will also grow stronger than ever. 

5. Could you please share the vision of Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital in 2024? 

Zhengzhou Orthopaedic Hospital was founded in 1952 and has witnessed a history of 72 years. Entering the 21st century, the hospital has been on the fast track. The goal set by our leadership teams has always been "to be the No.1 in Henan Province, the leading one in central China, and the first-class one in the country". We strive for this goal throughout history and forge ahead with fortitude and enterprise. Particularly in 2024, following the 20th CPC National Congress, we march into a crucial year of development. There's still a long way to go for the hospital this year. In particular, as the Yiju Health City Campus, a new campus of our hospital, opened in April 2023, its medical service has continued to improve and the number of inpatients has been increasing. Recently, we also plan to move our administrative office to the Yiju Health City Campus to upgrade our services. 

In addition, we vacate the space in the old campus for clinical use to ensure that more patients with orthopedic diseases can enjoy more considerate and comprehensive medical service in our hospital. 

At the same time, we will nurture more talents this year and send them abroad for further study, which will cultivate their global vision and sense of inclusiveness and empower us with more international cutting-edge orthopedic techniques. What's more, we need to make the most of the opportunities of international exchanges, deepening our ties with renowned experts of various fields and gaining deeper insights into different disciplines for the remarkable development of the whole hospital. Therefore, 2024 is a year of hope for us during which countless efforts will be made. Hopefully, with joint endeavors, we can gain fruitful results this year.

6. Secretary Mei, as you hold multiple responsibilities, how do you view the relationship among clinical work, teaching, and scientific research? And how do you manage to balance these three aspects?

For a teaching hospital, it's true that clinical work, education, and research are all indispensable and must be balanced and mutually reinforced. As the teaching hospital of both Henan University of Chinese Medicine and Henan University, Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital has accumulated extensive teaching experience, especially in the domain of orthopedics. Therefore, I personally believe that the three aspects mentioned above should synergize, promote, and develop each other. Especially for clinicians, it is crucial to have a solid theoretical foundation, so that you can later serve as a lecturer to pass on your rich clinical experience to younger surgeons, enabling them to master solid theories for their future endeavors. Meanwhile, through hands-on clinical practice during operations, their practical clinical skills can be enhanced. Furthermore, scientific research is also an endless driving force for a hospital's future development, which plays a very important role in clinical work and education.

GAO Bin, Deputy Director of Higher Education Department of Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, once said, "Clinical work represents today, research creates tomorrow, while education shapes the future." Hence, if a hospital lacks a high-quality faculty team to lead clinical practice, its future development may not be as promising. Thus, the quality of teaching influences a hospital's potential for future growth, the extent of its progress, and the level it can reach in the future.

Additionally, in terms of scientific research, our approach at Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital might differ from that of university hospitals. As a teaching hospital, we focus more on researches related to clinical problems identified by physicians during the clinical work, which need to be solved through clinical practice. Therefore, our research may not be the same as basic research. However, by reflecting on the problems we encounter in the clinical practice and conducting further research, we can also yield some results. Not only can we obtain provincial- and municipal-level scientific achievements, but can also certainly achieve even higher-level research outcomes with in-depth study and perseverance.

I think medical care, teaching, and research should develop synergistically. When you possess strong teaching and research abilities, you will be better equipped to coordinate the development of medical care during your clinical practice. So, these three aspects are inseparable. Lastly, by excelling in all three dimensions, a hospital's development can be assured, showing a bright and promising future.

7. How can we cultivate more outstanding young doctors? Please share your advice for them.

Zhengzhou Orthopedics Hospital places a strong emphasis on the training of young doctors, incorporating it into our annual scientific and educational programs. Every half year, we send a group of outstanding young doctors to renowned hospitals with prominent specialties both at home and abroad for half-a-year or one-year fellowships.

Over the years, the Zhengzhou Municipal Government and the Health Commission of Henan Province have also provided many opportunities for publicly-funded international fellowship programs, which our young doctors have actively participated in. This year, we will have 10 young doctors heading to the United States, Italy, Germany, France and other countries for study. Plus, there will also be a large number of young doctors pursing their studies at large hospitals within China.

In addition to sending young doctors out, we also invite renowned domestic experts to our hospital for ward rounds, surgical demonstrations, case discussions, and academic exchanges, which continuously helps to train our young talents in technical capabilities, theoretical foundation, and clinical practice. As a result, they can seize more opportunities to learn newer, higher-level, and more complex theories as well as techniques.

Throughout the years, we have also encouraged young doctors to pursue on-the-job doctoral degrees, providing more opportunities for them to engage in scientific research. 

This in turn boosts the hospital's overall scientific capacity, strengthens the relatively weak fields, and lays a good foundation for further scientific research progress.

At the same time, we also motivate young doctors to actively participate in academic exchanges via various forms, including international and domestic conferences, discussions on complex cases, international salons, and even health education speech contest, etc. We encourage them to get involved, enhance their comprehensive abilities, and show their talents. By providing more young doctors with better opportunities to develop the professional expertise and management skills of the hospital, we contribute to a well-rounded improvement in the hospital's competence.

As a doctor who has been engaged in orthopedics for more than 30 years, I suggest young people to stay grounded, focus on studying your specialties, and tide over solitude and humble circumstances.By dedicating yourself to the field for many years and putting forth effort and commitment, you will undoubtedly achieve something and successfully display your talents and abilities. Thus, it's also a test for young doctors who just take up their clinical work. 

Faced with challenging tasks, young doctors should concentrate on their specialties. I believe we will definitely reap a harvest after paying efforts despite that there will be many difficulties and challenges, especially when we just start clinical practice. I hope more and more young people will pursue careers in orthopedics, and I gladly welcome young practitioners to join my specialty—spine surgery, which is highly challenging. But with years of commitment, you will surely appreciate the joy, success, and fulfillment from the in-depth pursuit of your field.