When his medical training took him from his native Birmingham, Farrell Mendelsohn, MD, discovered there’s no place like home.
“I had heard about Cardiology, PC at Baptist Princeton being a first-rate practice, engaged in a lot of cutting-edge cardiology but also practicing old-fashioned medicine,” Mendelsohn says. A patient remained a physician’s patient whether the patient was in the office, the hospital, or on a follow up visit. It was not the assembly line medicine that many cardiac practices seemed to be following. This relationship practice appealed to Mendelsohn, so he joined Cardiology, PC when the opportunity arose.
Mendelsohn specializes in relationship building. That’s evident by the training program for Chinese physicians he introduced at Cardiology, PC about four years ago. The concept first started while he was in medical training and researching medical devices. He was working with engineers and device development people from all over the world. Some of these contacts suggested that he consider a training program for Chinese cardiologists.
How valuable could the experience be, he wondered, if the visiting physicians couldn’t actually do procedures? Doctors from another country would not be allowed to touch American patients.
Very valuable, as it turns out. Recently the Chinese Ministry of Health officially sanctioned the Cardiology, PC training program that Mendelsohn put in place. It is now one of only three U.S. programs approved by the Chinese Ministry. (Other programs are at Harvard’s School of Public Health and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.)
“We started originally having two Chinese cardiologists come for six months,” Mendelsohn says. Soon, he was receiving email requests about the program. Once the Chinese Ministry began covering travel and other expenses, the program expanded to four visiting physicians every three months. Princeton continues to supply housing as well as the time and expertise of its staff. To date, 23 Chinese interventional cardiologists have trained at Cardiology, PC.
“Our Chinese cardiology teaching program has been a great success due to the combined efforts of Cardiology, PC,” Mendelsohn says. Two physicians involved are Michael Wilensky, MD, director of the cardiac catheterization lab where the Chinese doctors do most of their training; and Alain Bouchard, MD, director of research, who has shared new projects with the visiting physicians.
Wilensky says Cardiology, PC’s catheterization lab offers the visiting doctors a chance to witness the bread-and-butter, large volume complex angiographic cases. But they also get exposed to critical cutting-edge research “definitely not seen in everybody’s cath lab.”
During teachable angiograms, the Chinese doctors see the same thing as their American counterparts, asking questions about the choices the doctors are making. “They see the blockage, they see the choice of guidance capsule we’re using. Do we balloon first or later? Quite often, there are many correct ways to do the procedure,” Wilensky says. ”Getting our feedback on why we chose one way helps them understand our choices.”
For his part, Bouchard says, “They’ve seen research protocol involving new stent procedure, which involves a biodegradable scaffold that dissolves within two to three years. It’s made of a special plastic that’s absorbed in the body.” The visiting cardiologists also learn about gene therapy in patients that’s meant to help regulate calcium inside enlarged hearts. “We’re infusing medication inside the coronaries to hopefully improve the patient’s diminished heart function,” Bouchard says. In addition, the Chinese physicians learn about treating scar tissue of damaged heart muscles with stem cells.
Besides the research, Bouchard believes the physicians take back another important concept as well: the value of documentation. “Here, we document everything,” he says, including the coronary anatomy, the heart function, and procedures used. This information can be used for reference and comparison when a patient returns with problems. “I’ve never been to China, but in talking to the physicians, I gather there is very little documentation,” he says. “Here, we take it for granted. They are learning our procedures. They observe and they take it back home.”
By all accounts, the Chinese interventional cardiologists’ training program is successful. Yet there’s still another reason why Mendelsohn is glad he pursued it. “The Baptist Health System is geared toward health care as part of a Christian ministry,” he says. To help with the program, he’s called on colleagues with ties to the Chinese church community for help. Exposure to Christianity has been a powerful experience for some of the Chinese doctors. “We’re not leaving Birmingham to go on a mission, but we’re kind of doing a reverse mission, where people are coming to us,” Mendelsohn says.
