Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Yu-pei Zhao, MD
Dr. Yu-pei Zhao, MD, Professor of Surgery, is the current director of Peking Union Medical College Hospital and also the vice president of Peking Union Medical College & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. He is a mentor for doctoral candidates and enjoys special allowance from State Council of China.
Dr. Zhao serves important roles in different international and local surgical organizations including vice president of the Chinese Medical Association, chairman of the Chinese Society of Surgery, chairman of Pancreatic Surgery Section of Chinese Society of Surgery, vice president of Beijing Medical Doctor Association, and member of the Disciplinary Appraisal Panels under the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. He is the chief editor of Chinese Journal of Surgery, chief editor of Annals of Surgery (Chinese Edition), and honorary chief editor/vice editor of over 10 peer-reviewed journals in the field of surgery. He is the ex-president of Asian Surgical Association.
In the past three decades, Dr. Zhao has made plenty of contributions to the surgical practice and scientific research of pancreatic cancers. His skillful and comprehensive treatment for pancreatic diseases has attracted patients from all corners of China. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons of England and also the winner of "Chinese Physician Award", "Ministry of Health Young and Mid-aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions", the first "Zhou Guang-zhao Clinician Award", and "Beijing Medical Ethics Model".
Dr. Zhao, together with his teams, has made great contributions toward the development of surgery through arduous efforts. By proactive application of the concept of “high-risk Populations of Pancreatic Cancer", his team efficiently promotes the high-risk populations to receive screening as soon as possible and helps the medical staff to lower the misdiagnoses rate. Under his leadership, a “Green Channel for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer" was established to standardize the whole management procedure. Meanwhile, a pancreatic cancer resectability evaluation system has been established via multidisciplinary cooperation, which plays an important role in the reduction of unnecessary open-abdomen surgery, rational use of medical resources, and improvement of surgical success rate. His team also make every efforts to optimize surgical indications, standardize the scope of surgical resection, and strengthen peri-operative management, which have contributed dramatic decrease in the operative mortality and the pancreatic fistula incidence. He successfully introduced gastrostomy with jejunal tube, which is less invasive and easy to perform, and therefore can avoid the complications of detaining gastric tube and remarkably improve the patients' post-operative quality of life. His team has actively carried out interventional chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer, which remarkably prolongs the patients' survivals and improve their quality of life. His research team has conducted a series of clinical studies on the diagnosis and surgical treatment of pancreatic endocrine tumors. His team successfully performed the first laparoscopic insulinoma resection in China. This approach distinctively relieves the potential trauma caused by open-abdomen surgery and shortens the durations of both surgery and hospital stay.
Dr. Zhao also actively devotes himself to the establishment of a pancreatic disease diagnosis and treatment center and the training of qualified medical staff. Together with colleagues nationwide, he is also importantly involved in the research on the challenging problems in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer and promotes the development of pancreatic surgery in China. Under his leadership, the Chinese Medical Association Guidelines on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer and the Ministry of Health Standards on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer have been developed. He is the principal investigator of the research project “Establishment of A Comprehensive Treatment System for Pancreatic Cancer”, which is supported by the “11th Five-Year Plan” National Science and Technology Support Program and joined by 16 pancreatic surgery centers. This prospective clinical study, focused on the major issues in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer, will offer a technical platform for pancreatic cancer management in China. He is also the principal investigator of over 20 State- and province-level research projects.
He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers, which has led to many national and local awards including the Chinese Medical Sci-Tech Advance Award (first class), the Higher Education Sci-Tech Award (second class), and National Science & Technology Progress Award (second class).
As a faculty member in Peking Union Medical College, he has been the mentor of more than 50 master or doctoral degree students and postdoctoral trainees. He has authored/translated four books, among which Pancreatology has been listed in the General Administration of Press and Publication-sponsored “Three Types of One Hundred Good books Program” as the “Original Work”.
Dr. Zhao actively promote the international and domestic academic exchanges in general surgery. He successfully organized the 2007 China Surgery Week and the 16th Asian Congress of Surgery and established a wide reputation. He also actively organizes Chinese surgeons to participate in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) annual meetings (including article submission), which further elevates the academic level of Chinese surgeons. In 2009, thanks to his leadership, the first training base for general surgeons in mainland China was established under the joint efforts of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong, and Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Chinese surgeons will be trained in this base in strict accordance with international criteria, which will for sure remarkably contribute to the continuous improvement in surgical care in China.