On the cutting edge
Returning home in 1981 after completing his studies, Dr. Wei began to apply what he had learned to patients, holding fast to the selfless ideals of his teacher, Dr. Noordhoff. Three years later, Noordhoff asked him to attend an academic conference on microsurgery. “That was the first time I had taken part in an international conference. To be able to present a paper alongside senior colleagues from Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand whom I had long admired made me very happy.” It was also the first time that he recognized that microsurgical skills in Taiwan were not lagging behind those in other countries. Thereafter, he attended every international microsurgery conference he could and presented the discoveries of his latest research, thereby demonstrating that microsurgical techniques in Taiwan had even surpassed those in other countries.
Over time, Wei began to be invited by universities and medical centers in other countries to serve as a visiting professor. “I thought that as we had learned our microsurgery from others, now it was up to us to think about how to give something back to the international community.” As he continued to reflect on Noordhoff’s spirit of selfless contribution, Wei, who would later receive a Harry J. Buncke Lecturer Award (considered the “Nobel Prize” of reconstructive microsurgery) from the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery, began step by step to develop a unique microsurgery teaching system for Taiwan.
Wei explains that microsurgery can help not only in saving lives, but also in the restoration of bodily functions and appearance, which play a key role in an individual’s dignity. Moreover, Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system provides an excellent basis for the development of this type of surgery, because it enables patients to undergo treatment without having to bear the burden of expensive medical bills.
Microsurgery is applied in two areas: trauma, and cancer treatment. For example, in cases of tongue cancer, after a large part of the tongue is cut out, reconstructive surgery would be impossible without microsurgical techniques. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are not very effective with this type of cancer, and they are more expensive.
Therefore, through many years of effort Wei has led his medical team in gradually developing reconstructive techniques in a wide range of subfields that include vascular, neural, lymphatic, and tubular structure microsurgery. There is nowhere else in the world that offers such a comprehensive set of microsurgical techniques. Chang Gung’s Reconstructive Microsurgery Center can boast many other world-beating achievements too, such as having created the largest number of innovative surgical procedures, having the largest number of doctors who are internationally recognized authorities, having the largest intensive care unit for reconstructive microsurgery, having treated the largest number of microsurgery cases of any medical center, and having the most publications. These areas in which Chang Gung leads the world attract practitioners and researchers from around the globe to come to Taiwan to visit and to undertake advanced study.
“I felt that there are too few people and places in the world that are able to perform microsurgery, so I had a thought: How can I spread these techniques as widely as possible?” Wei believed that the most effective way was to train seed teachers who would convey microsurgery to all places in the world where it is needed. This is the concept of “training the trainers.” To this end Wei persistently lobbied Chang Gung University and the Ministry of Education, until in 2015 he was finally able to transform CGMH’s existing system of clinical research fellowships in reconstructive microsurgery into the International Master of Science Program in Reconstructive Microsurgery, which combines clinical research with a master’s degree curriculum. This is the first master’s program of its type in the world, combining theory, experimentation, and clinical experience.
Thirty-seven years have passed since the founding of the Reconstructive Microsurgery Center, and in that time Chang Gung has trained more than 150 “fellows” (who spend at least one year at the hospital) and nearly 2000 “visiting scholars” (who come for varying periods of time), from 83 countries. Thanks to the accumulated experience of this training, Chang Gung has developed an instructional system and philosophy that are unique.
Through explanations of real cases, the fellows in the microsurgery master’s program gain a deep understanding of patients’ needs. The photo shows a follow-up visit in a case of toe-to-hand reconstructive surgery.