Shanghai: Medical Tourism in China

Going to China for medical treatment + tourism, health care + tourism are becoming new reasons for tourists to come to China.

1. Surgical Treatment of Rare Diseases

In recent years, patients who come to China specifically for medical treatment have become increasingly common in Shanghai hospitals.

In February this year, the tumor surgery team of Shanghai Children's Medical Center successfully removed a huge malignant liver tumor for a Polish child.

BUKO (a pseudonym), a 2-year-old Polish child, was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency caused by ADA gene mutation. Later, a liver tumor was discovered.

BUKO parents found out from the medical database that Shanghai Children's Medical Center has rich experience in liver tumor treatment, so they contacted the doctor via email and flew to Shanghai.

After surgery and treatment, BUKO recovered smoothly and was discharged to Europe to continue with later chemotherapy.

This is also the first "international patient" welcomed by Shanghai Children's Medical Center after it was approved as a "pilot unit for international medical tourism in public hospitals".

photo by Xinmin Weekly

Dutch national Ali is a child with biliary atresia, and his family settled in Sungai Buloh, Malaysia. Although the child underwent a hepatic portal-jejunal anastomosis (Kasai procedure) at a local hospital in Malaysia after birth, his liver function indicators did not return to normal after surgery and he experienced recurrent fever. Ali's condition is deteriorating day by day, and if he does not undergo a liver transplant surgery as soon as possible, his life may soon be in danger.

If it were many years ago, local doctors would recommend children with difficult liver transplants to Singapore, but this time both the patient and the doctor told Ali's parents to quickly contact the Children's Liver Transplant Center at Renji Hospital in Shanghai, China.

The number of liver transplants for children in Renji Hospital has ranked first in the world for 11 consecutive years, and its ability to deal with difficult operations is at the leading level in the world.

With the help of the team led by academician Xia Qiang from Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the Ali family came to Shanghai in the shortest possible time. Before the surgery, the team used the latest technology to discover the complexity of Ali's condition. After thorough preparation, on August 1, 2023, the living donor liver transplantation was successfully completed.The difficult liver transplantation this time again used the self-body portal vein patch plastic technique first created by Professor Xia Qiang.

Ali is one of the more than 40 foreign children who have received liver transplants at Renji Hospital in recent years. The children are mostly from Malaysia, Singapore and France.

photo by Xinmin Weekly

2. Assisted Reproductive Medical Services

The Reproductive Medicine Center of Renji Hospital has opened an international outpatient service since 2018. Steven R., Vice Chairman of the American Society for Reproductive MedicineProfessor Lindheim joined the team full-time and is the first non-Chinese foreign full-time doctor in the field of reproductive medicine in China.In 2019, the center successfully passed the DNV GL RTAC assisted reproductive technology international certification, becoming the first center in Chinese Mainland to pass this certification.

Now, the center provides safe and high-quality assisted reproductive medical services for nearly 200 foreign couples every year, and these families come from more than 30 countries.

The medical quality is the same as that of developed countries, but the cost may only be one-third of that in Western countries. For overseas patients, why not?

Sun Yun introduced that Renji Hospital receives nearly 20,000 foreign patients and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan every year, mainly from more than 40 countries including the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Malaysia, etc. Among them, many foreign patients come from overseas.

In addition, foreign experts from the United States, Italy and Germany have joined Renji Hospital to work full-time.

photo by Xinmin Weekly

3.Traditional Chinese Medicine health cultivation

Traditional Chinese medicine also has its unique attraction when seeking medical treatment in China.

More than a decade ago, some foreigners who traveled to Sanya, Hainan, discovered the benefits of traditional Chinese medicine treatments and began to experience traditional treatments such as acupuncture and moxibustion in local Chinese medicine clinics and hospitals.

According to local media in Sanya, for more than 20 years, the Sanya Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital has received more than 100,000 patients from more than 30 countries and regions including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey.

Nowadays, many materials introducing Chinese tourism abroad have made "experiencing traditional Chinese medicine" an essential item.Chinese medicine hospitals and clinics in places such as Hainan Lecheng and Zhengzhou, Henan often have foreigners coming in and out.

photo by Xinmin Weekly