Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences

The Heart Transplantation Department of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases is the largest heart transplantation center in China with the most comprehensive evidence-based data.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

Fuwai Hospital's heart transplantation program has been systematically conducted since 2004. Relying on the hospital's profound foundation in cardiovascular surgery established by Professor Guo Jiaqiang's first coronary artery bypass grafting surgery in China in 1974, it has gradually built a comprehensive heart transplantation technology system. Academician Hu Shengshou, as a leading figure in my country's cardiovascular surgery field, pioneered parallel heart transplantation in China and proposed the concept of "biological auxiliary pumps" for treating end-stage coronary artery disease. He led his team to push China's long-term survival rate in heart transplantation to international advanced levels. Starting from clinical pain points, the team collaborated with domestic high-end medical device companies to tackle the "bottleneck" technologies in artificial hearts, forming an innovative path of "clinical demand-driven—medical-enterprise collaborative R&D—clinical verification and transformation."

Core business operational efficiency:

Since 2004, Fuwai Hospital has performed over 1,500 heart transplants, ranking among the top in the world in terms of annual transplant volume, and has developed into a world-class heart transplant center. The 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year survival rates after heart transplantation are 94.8%, 88.5%, and 78.1%, respectively, with overall survival rates exceeding the international average by 10-15 percentage points. The team has cumulatively completed the largest single-center heart transplant operation in China with 1,473 heart transplants, with 5-year and 10-year survival rates of 88% and 78%, respectively, significantly higher than the global average of 72% and 57% published by the International Heart and Lung Transplantation Association.

Operational efficiency in the field of artificial hearts:

The team completed the largest single-group total implantable artificial heart surgery in China, with 172 cases, achieving a perioperative survival rate of 97.7% and a 3-year postoperative survival rate of 89.1%, significantly better than the international average of 63.1%. Two independently developed third-generation fully magnetically suspended artificial hearts have been launched in China and have obtained clinical trial certifications from the US FDA and the EU CE, successfully entering the high-end medical markets in Europe and the United States.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

It is home to the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and the National Key Laboratory for Cardiovascular Diseases. The project "Establishment and Promotion of a Precision Surgical Treatment System for Severe Heart Failure," led by Academician Hu Shengshou, won the second prize of the 2025 National Science and Technology Progress Award, marking my country's advanced level in the diagnosis and treatment of end-stage cardiovascular diseases. The team led the development of my country's first axial flow pump ventricular assist device to enter clinical trials, and jointly developed my country's first fully magnetically suspended artificial heart with Suzhou Tongxin Medical. They completed the entire clinical research process from animal experiments to clinical registration and evaluation, promoting the clinical application of artificial hearts nationwide. In terms of international benchmarking, the long-term survival rate of heart transplantation exceeds the average level of the International Heart and Lung Transplantation Association by more than 15 percentage points, and the clinical efficacy of artificial hearts is superior to that of top international products, realizing the reverse export of China's high-end cardiovascular technology.

The core internal medicine platform of the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, the birthplace of cardiovascular medicine in China, and the number one cardiovascular medicine department in the Fudan University specialty rankings for many years.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

Fuwai Hospital was founded in 1956, formerly known as the Chest Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It was jointly established by elites from the PLA 122 Sanatorium and Peking Union Medical College Hospital, naturally inheriting the dual genes of "military culture" and "Peking Union Medical College Hospital culture." The development of the Department of Cardiology is a microcosm of the development of cardiovascular medicine in China: from the pioneers like Dong Chenglang and Huang Wan who started from scratch, to Academician Gao Runlin leading the team to pioneer interventional treatment of coronary heart disease in China, after decades of hard work, it has now become one of the largest interventional treatment centers for coronary heart disease in the country, renowned nationwide for its standardized procedures, and has broadcast surgical demonstrations live at international interventional conferences such as the US TCT and European PCR. Professor Liu Lisheng was elected president of the World Hypertension Federation, and the STEP study led by Professor Cai Jun was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, providing strong evidence-based medical evidence for intensive antihypertensive strategies for hypertension in the elderly.

Core business operational efficiency:

Fuwai Hospital covers an area of approximately 55,000 square meters and is the largest cardiovascular disease treatment center in China and even globally. It has 47 wards, 1,725 beds, and 24 catheterization rooms. It performs 59,000 interventional cardiovascular procedures and 22,000 cardiac surgeries annually. In the past five years, the inpatient cure and improvement rate has remained above 99%, and the PCI mortality rate has remained at 0.1% (the elective PCI mortality rate is only 0.05%), significantly lower than the Beijing average. The Department of Cardiology implements a "center-ward" management system, comprising multiple clinical centers including a coronary artery disease center, an arrhythmia center, a heart failure center, and a cardiovascular metabolic ward, with comprehensive subspecialties.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

It is home to the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, the State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Diseases, and the National Clinical Research Center for Cardiovascular Diseases. In the 2023 global ranking of hospital cardiovascular research academic influence, Fuwai Hospital ranked among the top; its research influence in ischemic heart disease ranked second globally, and its research in arrhythmia, cardiomyopathy, and pulmonary vascular diseases all ranked among the top globally. It has ranked first in China for five consecutive years in CMI (Cardiovascular Mineral Management Index) and first in the national performance evaluation of tertiary public hospitals (other specialty surgical group) for five consecutive years.

The Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, is one of the world's largest cardiovascular surgery centers.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

On November 18, 1974, Professor Guo Jiaqiang led his team to successfully complete China's first coronary artery bypass grafting surgery under conditions of scarce equipment and technological gaps, marking the birth of coronary surgery in China. The team manually crafted coronary artery bypass grafting tools using ophthalmic surgical instruments and conducted animal experiments day after day, mastering the key techniques over a year. Professor Guo Jiaqiang led his team to visit 103 hospitals in 26 provinces across the country to promote the technology, resulting in 44 hospitals establishing new cardiac surgery departments and 30 hospitals being revived. This pioneering spirit of "from zero to one" laid the foundation for the Fuwai Cardiac Surgery Department's cultural gene of "daring to be the first and serving the country through technology."

Core business operational efficiency:

Fuwai Cardiovascular Surgery Center comprises three main centers: Adult Surgery Center, Pediatric Surgery Center, and Vascular Surgery Center. In 2021, it performed 14,570 cardiovascular surgeries, with a 30-day mortality rate of less than 1% for all types of surgeries. The Adult Surgery Center is one of the world's largest adult cardiac surgery centers, maintaining a surgical mortality rate below 1% for many years. The Pediatric Surgery Center performs over 3,000 surgeries annually, with a near 100% success rate for simple congenital heart disease surgeries, a 97% success rate for complex congenital heart disease correction, and a success rate of over 95% for congenital heart disease surgeries in patients weighing less than 5 kg—all ranking first in China and among the world's leading centers. The Vascular Surgery Center performs over 500 aortic surgeries and over 200 interventional surgeries annually, with a mortality rate of less than 1.5%.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

The department is led by Academician Zhu Xiaodong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, with Academician Hu Shengshou of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Fuwai Hospital serving as the discipline leader. It is home to the National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases and the National Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine of the National Health Commission. Professor Shu Chang's team developed the Concave Supra aortic arch three-branch stent-type artificial blood vessel, achieving "total endovascularization" of aortic arch surgery, marking my country's leading position in this field internationally. In 2017, Professor Sun Xiaogang pioneered the application of aortic balloon occlusion technology to total aortic arch replacement, shortening the deep hypothermic arrest time to 3-5 minutes, a study recognized as a "TOP 5" by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). Shu Chang's team has performed 229 surgical demonstrations in 27 countries and regions, and completed 24 first-ever complex aortic minimally invasive surgeries in 16 countries.