Project HOPE Helps China Build a New Foundation for Pediatric Medicine

Abstract

Shanghai, China—Workers in Shanghai are now pouring the foundation for China's first major pediatric teaching and referral hospital. Expected to open in late 1997, The Shanghai Children's Medical Center will serve as a national training center for China's health professionals and provide state-of-the-art clinical care for children with serious health problems. Thanks in part to the crippling of its educational system during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), China lags behind the West in advanced training in many areas of medicine. With approximately one fifth of the world's children, China has an enormous need for modern pediatric teaching facilities. So, beginning in the early 1990s, the global health care foundation Project HOPE (see accompanying article) began a partnership with the Chinese government, the City of Shanghai, and Shanghai Second Medical University to build a world-class pediatric teaching hospital. The Shanghai Children's Medical Center will provide advanced medical care for approximately 250 000