General Information
The Institute of Geriatric Cardiology (JGC), authorized by Chairman Zemin Jiang, was established on Nov. 26, 1996 and opened for patients on May 15, 1998.
The institute is composed of clinical and laboratory departments. The clinical departments include an out-patient department, which specialize in the diagnosis and treatment for elderly patients with cardiac disease as well as those with multiple organ-system diseases; the in-patient department, with 2 divisions and 100 beds; a coronary care unit with 20 beds; and 2 catheterization labs. The laboratory departments include labs of cardiopathology, cardiopathophysiology, molecular biology, biochemical pharmacology, sleep-breathing disorder syndrome, traditional Chinese medicine and molecular diagnosis for mitochondrial diseases.
Our current research programs include clinical and basic research on multiple organ dysfunction in the elderly (MODSE), PCI for very elderly patient, epidemiology of calcific valvular diseases in Chinese, perioperative medical management for the elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, diagnosis and treatment of sleep-breathing disorder syndrome, and role of mitochondrial mutation in the development of hypertension.
The institute was authorized as one of the key laboratories of Chinese PLA in 1998, and the “best key labs of Chinese PLA” in 2000. In 2001, Geriatrics of the General Hospital of Chinese PLA, of which the JGC plays a key role, was evaluated as national key discipline of China by the Ministry of Education.
Academic Exchanges
JGC has kept close relationship with many hospitals and medical institutions at home and abroad, including Harvard University Medical School, California State University, San Diego, Genetic Institute of George University Medical Center, Changgeng Hospital of Taiwan, Prince Wells Hospital affiliated to the Hong Kong Chinese University, Basic Medical Research Institute of Beijing University, Life Academy of Tsing Hua University, Basic Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Medical School of Beijing University, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, etc. Many scholars from US, Great britan, Japan, as well as form Hong Kong and Taiwan have been invited to JGC for extensive academic exchanges. In the annual Great Wall International Congress of Cardiology, a new forum on geriatric cardiology has been inaugurated by JGC.
Founding Director
Professor Shiwen Wang, founding director of JGC, graduated from the Fourth Military Medical University (former Medical College of Nanjing University) in 1955. From July 1984 to January 1986, Prof. Wang fulfilled further education in cardiopathology in Massachusetts General Hospital of Harvard University and UCSD, where she got her postdoctoral certificate.
Prof. Wang is one of the pioneers in geriatrics, which is a developing discipline in China. As a renowned cardiovascular specialist, she has devoted herself to the treatment and research in heart failure, myocardial infarction and multiple organ diseases. She has made great contribution to the development of geriatrics and health care in China. She is the first to raise the new concept of multiple organ failure in the elderly (MOFE) and multiple organ dysfunction syndromes in the elderly (MODSE).
With extensive and profound research work, she put forward “lung-initiation” hypothesis of MODSE. This study was supported by the National Basic Research Program (973 Program). She has won many awards for her excellent work including the National Science and Technology Progress Award (second class), Military Science and Technology Progress Awards (first class and second class), Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology award (first class), Ho Leung Ho lee Science and Technology Progress Award, and National Special Recognition Award for Health Care.
She edited two comprehensive textbooks, Geriatric Cardiology, and Heart Disease in Women, and both are considered classic in China and won many national awards. She has published over 400 articles. As editor-in-chief, Prof. Wang founded the Chinese Journal of Multiple Organ Diseases in the Elderly (in Chinese) and the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology (in English). She is also on editorial board of American Journal of Cardiopathology, American Journal of Cardiopathobiology, and Hongkong Journal of Gerontology. She was awarded “the famous teacher of the times”. Owing to her great achievements, Prof. Wang won first-class merit authorized by Chairman Zhemen Jiang on June 11, 2004.
