Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    A SHENZHEN hospital Thursday opened a heart center that will have renowned German doctors working there, after the city encouraged medical service providers to bring in outside resources to improve its own.

    Southern Medical University Shenzhen Hospital — which itself was a result of the Sanming Project, under which Shenzhen enlisted the support of the Guangzhou-based university to build the hospital — had been preparing for the launch of the heart center since June.

    Doctors from the University of Freiburg visited the hospital and gave seminars in November before the two sides reached agreements to bring German cardiology expertise to Shenzhen.

    The Heart Center of University of Freiburg is one of the largest in Europe and offers a full range of the most modern invasive and non-invasive treatments. It receives roughly 22,000 inpatients and 44,000 outpatients each year.

    Dr. H.C. J. Siewert, a fellow of the German National Academy of Sciences, will lead the German team and doctors from the team will work at the Shenzhen hospital from time to time. Dr. Marco Behrens, who performed Germany’s first heart transplant operation in 1986, is scheduled to work in the Shenzhen hospital for at least six months every year. Behrens had experience working in hospitals in eastern China from the past two years.

    The center, equipped with cutting-edge facilities, now has 40 beds and about 10 doctors, according to Li Tiejiang, director of the center. Li was trained in Germany. “With the help of German expertise, the center aims to give customized treatment to each patient,” said Liao Sizhao, president of the hospital.