On June 2, the First Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine Zhejiang University and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center signed an agreement to set up a joint liver center. The agreement-signing ceremony marks the establishment of a world-class liver health and research center at Zhejiang University.
Liver disease is a serious hazard to human health with a huge number of victims worldwide. The First Affiliated Hospital of School of Medicine Zhejiang University is undertaking research on national key disciplines such as hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and infectious diseases with state key laboratory for diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease. Great achievements have been made in liver transplantation, diagnosis and treatment of hepatobiliary and pancreatic disease, treatment of severe hepatitis and liver failure, artificial liver, micro-ecology of liver disease and so on. Pancreatic and liver transplant center at the First Affiliated Hospital has become the largest domestic organ transplant center. The liver transplantation team has successfully handled about one thousand cases in this field, with a survival rate of 95.2% in one year. The team also offered medical help and conducted transplant surgeries in Indonesia in 2010.
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is among the top 3 medical centers in the U. S., providing excellent medical service with the most advanced facilities. Liver transplantation center at UCLA is one of the largest liver transplant centers in the world, the number of liver transplants performed being over 5,000.
The two liver transplant centers have been cooperating with each other since 2005. This time, the establishment of the joint research center is to best employ the international resources of the two sides based on the academic and technological achievements of both. The joint center will carry out all-round cooperation in clinical practice, research, teaching on an equal basis.
On the ceremony, the experts from both sides shared opinions on two complex cases with remote video system. After the ceremony, American experts joined Chinese doctors in their ward rounds.