Agreement reached to bring Chinese children with tumors to Jacksonville for treatment
Executives with Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Health System and the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute signed agreements in Beijing, China, on Friday to establish a pediatric neuro-oncology program where some of the more than 500,000 Chinese children diagnosed with brain tumors each year will travel to Jacksonville for treatment.
The signing establishes a Sino-American Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program that will lead to advanced training of Chinese physicians and nurses in pediatric-oncology and other pediatric health conditions; provide tele-consultations for pediatric patients in China; bring patients to Jacksonville for treatment; tele-monitor Chinese patients who have been treated in Jacksonville after they return to China; and provide opportunities for research in China and Jacksonville.
There is no proton therapy treatment facility in China.
Michael Aubin, Wolfson’s president, Michael J. Erhard, Nemours’ enterprise vice president and physician in chief of Florida operations, and Stuart Klein, executive director of the Proton Therapy Institute, represented their organizations at the signing. They were joined by Tim Shi, chief officer for Global MD, China Office.
The initiative will formalize the relationships between the Jacksonville health organizations and children’s hospitals in China.
Klein of the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute said he expects the program to have an impact similar to agreements the institute has with the United Kingdom, Norway and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. He said the institute has the largest pediatric proton therapy program in the world and has treated patients from more than 30 countries since it opened in 2006.
Wolfson’s Aubin said the initiative expands a relationship that Jacksonville pediatric health-care organizations have had with Chinese children’s hospitals for several years.
In 2015 Aubin and Nemours’ Erhard accompanied Thomas Chiu, medical director for external affairs at the UF College of Medicine — Jacksonville, to China where they visited hospital officials and medical schools in Beijing, Chengdu and Hong Kong.
Aubin noted that since that visit, there have been pediatric medical forums in both Beijing and Jacksonville. Chinese children have been brought to Jacksonville for treatment and Chinese caregivers have been brought to Jacksonville for training.
“It is exciting to see this partnership expand to have an even stronger impact on children with life-threatening conditions in China,” Aubin said.
Charlie Patton: (904) 359-4413