The picture shows Wang Ping, an aid doctor from the Changde Group of the 11th batch of Hunan Province’s aid-to-Tibet team, preparing to perform an X-ray examination on a young patient. Photo by our correspondent Wang Ying
The picture shows Liu Miaomiao (second from left), a Tibetan aid doctor from Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, leading colleagues from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Department of Shannan Maternal and Child Health Hospital to make ointments. Photo by our reporter Wu Peitao
In the Yalong River Valley after autumn, the sun is bright during the day and the wind turns cooler at night.
In the four counties of Longzi, Qusong, Langkazi and Sangri in Shannan City, members of the Hunan, Hubei and Anhui Tibetan Aid Medical Team travel through wards and clinics, extending diagnosis and treatment online to respond to requests for help from distant places at any time. What they bring is not just surgeries and equipment, but also a collaborative mechanism that can stay on the plateau and continue to operate.
How can medical aid to Tibet help the "roots"?
3. The power of supporting Tibet can be answered in three words: connect, make up for shortcomings, and retain people.
A "cloud network" brings the distance closer
The difficulty in practicing medicine on plateau lies in the distance. It is often necessary to cross mountains and ridges to get from the township to the county seat. Traveling for urgent illness sometimes takes longer than the time for treatment. The first step of the Tibet Aid Team is to "move" the clinic online.
Wang Ping, an imaging doctor at Longzi County People's Hospital, is a member of the Changde Group of the 11th batch of Hunan Province's aid-to-Tibet team and has worked in Longzi County for nearly 4 years. He took the lead in establishing a 24-hour online county imaging diagnosis WeChat group, bringing together doctors from county hospitals and remote township health centers. This group became a "cloud clinic." At 1:18 a.m., a doctor from Zhari Health Center called. A patient had severe abdominal pain, and the image was immediately sent to the group. Wang Ping sat up from the bed, zoomed in, took a closer look, and quickly wrote down diagnostic opinions and treatment plans. This is not the first time such a late-night call has occurred. He often said: "The public's illness cannot wait."
A "cloud clinic" has been built. When rural doctors encounter uncertain films, they can upload them at any time. Wang Ping can answer questions online and conduct real-time consultations. An old Tibetan woman said after completing a DR (digital radiography) examination: "I used to have to travel a long way to take a film, but now I can take it at the township health center at my doorstep."
Online collaboration is not limited to Longzi County. As early as 2024, Yangxin County People's Hospital of Huangshi City, Hubei Province donated 100,000 yuan to build a remote ECG collaboration platform with Qusong County People's Hospital. In May this year, the seventh batch of the Tibet Aid Team of Huangshi City, Hubei Province signed a remote medical imaging cooperation agreement with Qusong County to provide free remote imaging diagnosis and technical guidance; in Langkazi County, the Langkazi Medical Team of the Anhui Province Aid Tibet Team established an Anhui-Tibet remote consultation The center has opened up multi-disciplinary online diagnosis and treatment channels and standardized two-way referrals of critically ill patients; on September 8 this year, the First People's Hospital of Pingjiang County, Yueyang City, Hunan Province and the Central Hospital of Sangri County signed a medical community co-creation framework agreement, and remote consultation and online teaching were included in the agreement.
A network connects counties, townships and hospitals thousands of miles away. The mountains that the masses in Shannan once climbed are being leveled bit by bit by network cables.
An operation to make up for the shortcomings
Remote consultation solves the "distance" and fills the "vacancy" on the operating table.
The average altitude of Qusong County is 4,200 meters. Local people often suffer from common plateau diseases such as neck, shoulder, waist and leg pain, altitude hypertension, and osteoarthritis. In April this year, the seventh batch of the Tibetan aid team from Huangshi City, Hubei Province visited and investigated the needs and signed 6 assistance documents with the Hubei Province Huangshi Central Hospital, the Municipal Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, the Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Hubei Province Daye Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. Starting from July, nine medical staff from the Daye Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Hubei Province stayed at Qusong County Tibetan Medicine Hospital for 2 months, bringing appropriate traditional Chinese medicine techniques such as Li's Bianstone scraping, ear acupuncture bean pressing, and balanced cupping to the plateau.
In July, an old man in his 70s was urgently sent to the gastroscopy room of Qusong County People's Hospital. The patient had cardiac tear and bleeding, black stools, and hematemesis for a whole day. Wang Jing, an expert in aiding Tibet from Huangshi Central Hospital in Hubei Province, and Gusang Quzhen, deputy chief physician of the Department of General Internal Medicine at Qusong County People's Hospital, consulted immediately and decisively implemented emergency gastroscopy to stop the bleeding. A tear about 2 centimeters long below the cardia was still bleeding. Wang Jing steadily implanted two hemostatic clips to accurately seal the tear. This is the first painless gastroscopic endoscopic treatment of cardiac tear and bleeding in Qusong County.
Cataracts are a common disease among elderly people on plateaus. On August 10 this year, Yuan Jiangfeng, director of the ophthalmology department, doctor Yuan Rui, and operating room nurse Hou Dan of Yangxin County People's Hospital of Huangshi City, Hubei Province flew to Qusong with equipment and lenses. Early the next morning, the three people showed up at the outpatient clinic of Qusong County People's Hospital on time, and the patient was already waiting at the door. In 2 days, all 12 cataract surgeries were successful. The 79-year-old Tsering Dawa held the doctor’s hand after the operation and repeatedly said words of thanks.
In Langkazi County, which is 4,500 meters above sea level, there was no independent orthopedic ward in the past, and patients with orthopedic injuries often needed long-distance referrals. The Langkazi medical team of the Anhui Provincial Aid to Tibet Team worked with local hospitals to equip mobile C-arm machines and other specialized equipment, improve management systems, and build an independent orthopedic ward with the support of the Tibet Aid Cooperation. A number of county-first operations such as replantation of severed fingers and bone tumor resection were completed. The team also took the lead in preparing for the establishment of a gastroscopy room, went to high-altitude remote areas for free clinics, and went into pastoral areas to conduct research on plateau osteoarthrosis.
One surgery after another, the shortcomings of county medical care have been made up piece by piece; what remains in the local area is not only medical technology, but also the confidence for people to see doctors at their doorsteps.
A team to retain technology
Equipment will be depreciated, and cadres supporting Tibet will be rotated. What worries the doctors aiding Tibet the most is the problem of "human movement and sudden death".
Wang Ping's term in Longzi County is about to expire. He turned every online consultation into a teaching class, integrated case discussions into daily film readings, combined with high-altitude chest and skeletal system diseases, and gave diagnostic opinions while breaking down diagnostic ideas and film reading techniques to grassroots doctors. Offline, he went to health centers in remote towns and villages to provide guidance on film reading, case studies, and on-site teaching. Wang Ping said: "No matter how advanced the equipment is, it will be meaningless if the masses cannot use it; no matter how good the technology is, if there are no local talents to continue it, there will be no long-term hope." His apprentice Luo Dan is now the director of the Imaging Department of Longzi County People's Hospital. Luo Dan said: "In the past, there were not many patients undergoing CT, about 200 per month, but now the number has reached 450 per month. Under the guidance of Teacher Wang, the department can independently master CT enhancement operation technology and diagnosis."
In Langkazi County, the Langkazi medical team of the Anhui Provincial Aid to Tibet Team has made teaching a closed loop: theoretical teaching, image analysis, preoperative discussion, intraoperative teaching, postoperative review, follow-up management, and full-process follow-up. The county's first targeted orthopedic full-time physician, he has completed multiple level 3 and 4 high-level orthopedic surgeries simultaneously with his master. In response to the pain points of preparing for professional qualification examinations, Anhui doctors aiding Tibet carried out one-on-one tutoring and mock interviews, and all trainees in 2026 passed the interview. The rotational training of rural medical staff in the county has achieved full coverage, and the Fourth People's Hospital of Lu'an City, Anhui Province has planned to send grassroots medical staff to Anhui for further training in 2026. The cultivation chain of "in-hospital training, out-of-town training, distance teaching, and exam-based learning promotion" has been formed.
During each batch of cataract surgeries in Qusong County, local young doctor Gongjue Peijie stood beside and behind the surgeon, taking pictures of the angle of the capsulorhexis and the strength of the chopping force with his mobile phone and taking notes in a notebook. When leaving, Yuan Jiangfeng said to him: "You will practice with him first. Next time you come to Yangxin, you will work as a follow-up in our department and work night shifts. You will study for half a year and then come back." The agreement between Sangri County and the First People's Hospital of Pingjiang County, Yueyang City, Hunan Province also stipulates a "teacher-apprentice" mechanism to provide targeted assistance to weak specialties such as obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, emergency first aid, etc., and to cultivate local subject leaders and business backbones.
Groups of doctors aiding Tibet have come and gone. Wang Ping's term is about to expire, but the "cloud clinic" he built will not be closed. The system is there, the team is there, and the remote connection is there. The relay between the banks of the Yangtze River and the Brahmaputra River is still running one after another.
