Guangdong General Hospital benefits Ghana

Guangdong General Hospital is working with its partners on a cardiology center at Kumasi Hospital in Ghana to extend medical aid to the western African country.

Since 2014, the hospital, in a project proposed in 2014 by Lin Chunying, president of its Nanhai branch, has trained cardiovascular specialists from Ghana to improve their capability in fields such as diagnoses, complex surgeries and ICU management.

As part of the project, the hospital has over the past two years sent four expert teams to Kumasi Hospital to conduct 30 cardiovascular surgeries free of charge.

Experts from the hospital also conducted a three-month epidemiological survey of cardiovascular risk factors among 1,100 people in Ghana, which was the country's first survey on heart health of non-patients and provides information for the government's decision-making, Lin said.

An online platform will be launched early next year to allow doctors on both sides to share information and jointly resolve cases.

In the longer run, a joint medical conference with Ghana is being considered for communication and project coordination and a cardiovascular alliance is being brewed for academic meetings and exchanges, said Lin, who also led a medical aid team in Ghana in 2011 and 2012.

Apart from Ghana, medical aid teams have been sent from Guangdong province to Equatorial Guinea, the Dominican Republic, Gambia and the Maldives, with a number of major hospitals in Guangdong participating.

liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn