GOSH delegation visits Chinese children’s hospitals

From 16th - 19th April 2018, a delegation from GOSH visited four of the top children’s hospitals across Shanghai and Beijing.

The GOSH delegation included Mr Trevor Clarke, Director of International Services and Dr Melanie Hiorns, Clinical Director of International Services. Joining the directors was Prof Andrew Taylor, Professor of Cardiovascular Imaging and Divisional Director for Paediatric Cardiac and Cancer Services, Dr Darren Hargrave, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist, Mr Neil Bulstrode, Consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and Dr Sophia Varadkar, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist.

The team visited Rui Jin Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Shanghai, Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Beijing Jingdu Children's Hospital. The purpose of the visits was to conduct a friendly international exchange on multi-disciplinary clinical knowledge between the specialty departments and discuss potential future collaborations.

During each visit, Mr Trevor Clarke provided an introduction to the history of GOSH and its experience treating patients from all over the world. Read more about GOSH here.

Mr Neil Bulstrode shared his recent clinical case of melanoma giant fistula surgery for Youkang Huang from China, the ‘spotted baby’. He also shared case studies on ear reconstruction and conjoined twin surgery and emphasized the importance of multi-disciplinary teamwork in the success of these cases. Dr Darren Hargrave and Prof Andrew Taylor introduced cutting-edge clinical research and innovative practices in the fields of paediatric oncology and paediatric cardiology respectively, and Dr Sophia Varadkar presented innovative practices in the field of paediatric neurology and in particular, epilepsy. 

In addition to the collaborative hospital visits, Dr Varadkar also presented a special lecture under the title of ‘Cutting-edge treatment options and daily care for children with epilepsy’, organised by Saint Lucia Consulting. Dr Varadkar detailed the medical understanding of epilepsy for the Chinese families present and emphasized the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration and parental collaboration to confirm an accurate diagnosis. She also shared information about cutting-edge drug and non-drug treatments and answered questions from both onsite and online Chinese audiences. The lecture received strong praise and can be viewed by clicking on this link.

GOSH is committed to providing high-quality education and clinical support to fellow paediatric institutions around the world and hopes to continue to develop mutually beneficial collaborative partnerships in China, to ensure Chinese children with very rare and complex medical conditions have access to the most cutting-edge treatment available.