On the afternoon of Oct 20, professor Torben Mogensen and his 10 colleagues, who specialize in ERAS and day surgery, visited Lanzhou (LZU). Yan Chunhua, president of LZU and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, met with them at the university’s Run Run Shaw Science Building. Mogensen was the medical director of Hvidovre Hospital, Copenhagen University, and he won the Dunhuang Award for Outstanding Foreign Experts of Gansu Provincial Government as well as the Chinese Government Friendship Award. Also present at the meeting were heads of Lanzhou University’s First Hospital and Office of International Cooperation and Exchange.

Yan extended a sincere welcome and expressed his appreciation to the delegation for making contributions to both the medicine and health care in Gansu Province and the cultivation of medical talents in Lanzhou University over the years. He was especially thankful to Torben, who has helped enhance the medical education and research at LZU in various ways, Yan said. He stated that LZU, in compliance with the consensus of ERAS Society, will continue to cooperate with its specialists in a bid to optimize ERAS practice and conduct research on evidence-based data quality control and clinical medicine. He looked forward to more in-depth cooperation in ERAS and day surgery with the foreign experts.

Torben congratulated the First Hospital of LZU on its recent achievements in ERAS. While emphasizing the important role of ERAS, he put forward constructive suggestions for the medical education of LZU in terms of student management, teaching modes and simulation experiments. He said that medicine knows no countries, and therefore all parties should strengthen cooperation to better medical services and make contributions to human welfare.

During the free discussion, the other experts in the delegation expressed their wish to cooperate with LZU in talent cultivation, scientific research and clinical experiments. They also hoped that the medical talents of LZU will play a more important role on the world stage and make more contributions to the world’s medical enterprise.

After the meeting, Yan and the delegation took a group photo in front of the Science Building. The delegation also visited Lanzhou University History Museum.

News background

As an international medical organization, ERAS Society now involves almost 10,000 professionals in 50 world-famous university hospitals and medical institutions in its 25 member countries. The society provides over 30 clinical guidelines for such fields as sub-majors of surgery and anesthesia, based on high-quality clinical research and optimal evidence-based practice in medical centers around the world. By conducting high-quality clinical research, education, quality control audit, and implementation of evidence-based practice, the society is dedicated to developing peri-operative care, reducing discomforts and complications, and improving recovery. Hans de Boer is the present chairman of the society.

The delegates to Lanzhou University included Torben Mogensen, former medical director of Hvidovre Hospital and a winner of the Dunhuang Award for Outstanding Foreign Experts of Gansu Provincial Government as well as the Chinese Government Friendship Award; Valérie Addor, Chair of the ERAS® Implementation Programm Committee of the ERAS Society; Tom Wainwright, professor at Orthopaedics and deputy-director of ORI, Bournemouth University; Emmanuel Melloul, associate professor at Visceral Surgery, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland; Eske Aasvang, head of research at the anesthesiological department of Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark; Bjarne Hjaltalin, head of research at the anesthesiological department of University Hospital Zealand, Denmark; Felix Rohrer, anesthesiologist at Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland; Angela Balfour, lead nurse at ERAS Society; Cecilie Selcha，anesthetists nurse at Rigshospitalet of Copenhagen, Denmark; Céline Forster，thoracic surgeon at Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland; and Hanne Hasling，community management expert in Copenhagen region of Denmark.

From 2019 to 2022, the First Hospital of Lanzhou University successively earned four “ERAS practice and popularization” projects of Ministry of Science and Technology of PRC. Under the leadership of president Li Xun, it has made great contributions to the medicine and healthcare in Northwestern China by actively cooperating with the world’s top experts in ERAS practice and research,  introducing advanced concepts, procedures and technologies to improve its medical services, and  working with other Chinese medical institutions and teams to implement and popularize ERAS-related concepts, diagnosis and therapies.