Source: Pediatric Oncology Department, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Written by: Office of International Collaboration and Public Relations, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On December 24th, 2014, the Department of Pediatric Oncology of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) was invited to a video-conference with two American institutions, namely, the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Given the increasing needs in globalizing healthcare, teaching and research cooperation, the tripartite video-conference conducted by CHLA aimed to gain mutual understanding and explore the possibility of further collaboration.

Prof. Qian Chao-Nan, Vice-President of SYSUCC, had intensive discussions with the representatives of the two American institutions. Representatives from different departments of SYSUCC also participated in the meeting, such as ones from the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Neurosurgery, Urology, Medical Oncology, Information Technology, International Cooperation, as well as the technology services provider Accenture.

The meeting began with Dr. Zhen Zi-Jun, Associate Professor of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, who introduced SYSUCC and his dedicated field. Then the floor was given to Dr Stuart Siegel from CHLA, who introduced his institution and gave multiple clues concerning eventual collaboration.

Founded in 1901, CHLA is the first children’s hospital in Southern California. It is ranked fifth in the U.S. for cancer care on the U.S. News & World Report Best Children's Hospitals List. The hospital gathers more than 5,000 employees, including 588 medical staff. It has 568 beds, 10,920 new inpatient cases, about 301,838 outpatients’ visits and 15,459 surgeries each year. CHLA has also made remarkable achievements in Pediatric Oncology such as the development of international standardization of neurablastoma treatment protocols and the establishment of the largest children’s hematology center in the west of the United States.

Following the speech of CHLA, the University of Southern California made one also, promising to actively participate and promote international cooperation.

Prof. Qian Chao-Nan and experts in the two institutions then exchanged on a hospital level, presenting views and exploring the feasibility of a multifaceted cooperation. Prof. Sun Xiao-Fei, Director of the Department of Pediatric Oncology of SYSUCC, exposed more practical possibilities of collaboration such as Sino-US training, remote consultation, cooperation through conferences and clinical trials, in order to create common progress in medical care, teaching and research, and to benefit the patients.

After the video-conference, the participating staff from SYSUCC had a brief meeting to summarize the possible collaboration opportunities such as signing an agreement for staff training programs, conducting remote consultations and optimizing the network platform for teleconsultation. Establishing teleconsultation together with the US will provide better treatment services for the cancer patients, and strengthen multilateral cooperation to improve the overall level of SYSUCC.

The video-conference with the two institutions from the US was a real success, promising to give a good start to SYSUCC for remote consultations with foreign institutions, laying the foundation for promoting international exchanges and cooperation for Pediatric Oncology.