Project HOPE's Dr. Howe Visits Shanghai Children's Medical Center

The Shanghai Children's Medical Center is remarkable for its youth (ten years) and its accomplishment (now #1 in the world in the number of open heart surgeries on infants and children). It was conceived and created through a partnership between Project HOPE and the Shanghai Municipal Government, one which continues to this day.

Our visit to its Heart Center, a seven story building devoted to cardiology and cardiovascular surgery opened just a year ago, was inspirational. Its beds are filled to capacity with patients, only 20% of whom come from the Shanghai area. The remainder are from throughout China--and beyond (South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia and Austria, for example). Its cardiac surgeons, now 24 in number, will perform 2600 open heart surgeries this year.

We went on to City Hall to meet with the Vice Mayor, Shen Xiaoming. An internationally-recognized, academic pediatrician, he served as President of the Shanghai Children's Medical Center from 1998 to 2004. Since then, he has had positions of increasing responsibility in university and city settings. He is responsible today for the City's health and education programs, from hospitals to universities to public schools.

He spoke of his priorities, now and in the years ahead. He has a keen concern for the children who were injured in the earthquake in Sichuan Province. He encouraged HOPE and the Shanghai Children's Medical Center to join in the creation of a rehabilitation facility for children in Chengdu, one which would address both physical and emotional needs. This could be a model for the nation, as China's expertise in this specialty is yet undeveloped.

For the future, he sees two health-related concerns for China: first, emerging infectious diseases, which require the best of surveillance, diagnosis and treatment; and second, a focus on the "whole person," rather than disease. He feels strongly that physicians need to shift their emphasis from focusing on the treatment of disease to the maintaining the health of their patients.

For example, he described a new City-wide policy of limiting the amount of salt in the daily diet of children. An actual amount has been set as the limit, and an education program is currently underway to assure compliance with it.

All this is in keeping with his energy--and his unrelenting curiosity. It was he who did the original research in lead poisoning in children that led to the Central Government's decision to require unleaded gasoline in China. He continues to mentor Ph.D. students and maintains an active lab, looking at sleep patterns in children--and their effect on learning.

The American Chamber of Commerce, in Shanghai, is now in its fourth year with a Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility. We were invited to present the HOPE story before the Committee; other presenters included the Grameen Foundation, the Ruan Yi Shan Heritage Foundation, UNICEF and the World Wildlife Foundation.

HOPE is the only one of twelve foundations, outside China, officially approved by the Central Government for work in China, and we were the third behind the Gates Foundation and the Clinton Foundation (November 2007).