Keck Medical School professor offers expertise to China in run-up to Olympic Games

By Katie Neith
This article was originally published by USC News.

A graduate of the Peking Union Medical School in Beijing, China, Renli Qiao, now associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine, has been helping improve medicine in his homeland for years.

This past August, his service paid off with an invitation to provide medical support at the Beijing Olympics.

Qiao’s journey to the Games began in April, when he organized a respiratory medicine and intensive care conference with Edward Crandall, Hastings Professor and Norris Chair of Medicine at Keck, in Beijing and Shanghai. Qiao has presented an annual series of Continuing Medical Education lectures sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Health since 2002.

During his recent visit, the ministry asked Qiao to be involved with medical planning for the Olympics.

“They were not confident in handling all the foreigners,” said Qiao. “The levels of medical knowledge in China are not standardized like they are in the U.S. They needed help in knowing how to approach foreign patients.”

Upon returning to the States, Qiao helped write and edit an 80-page English and Chinese manual of common medical situations to assist Chinese physicians in treating foreigners during the Games.

Then, he formulated a step-by-step admission plan, with a focus on informed consent.

“They do not go through the process of informed consent in China,” Qiao explained. “I helped to make sure the patient admissions during the Olympics would be compatible to the American system.”

Finally, just a few months before the opening day, Qiao was invited to be an official part of the Olympics medical team.

While he was resistant to take more time off for travel, Olympic fever got the best of him.

“The whole nation of China was like a boiling heat—I couldn’t ignore the excitement,” said Qiao. “Dr. Crandall worked very hard so that I could take another two weeks to be there.”

Once he arrived in Beijing, he was stationed in the medical station at the Olympic Headquarters. Initially, the most treated affliction was only heat stroke. However, Qiao was involved with treating a young foreign reporter in a case that made national media both in China and in his native country. The man presented with respiratory failure, but also had liver failure—a complication that the local medical team could not clearly diagnose. Qiao was called in to treat him and was able to quickly stabilize the patient, who likely came to the Games sick.

“The Chinese were very appreciative,” said Qiao, who later received coveted tickets to several real Olympic events as a gift.

The Olympics are over, but Qiao’s effort continues. He is hoping to organize a return trip to China for next April and would love to have other doctors join him.

“China has become rich, and they have the money to buy the best equipment. But how it is used, how the hospitals are run—that’s where they really need help,” he said.