HOPE’s Shanghai NCD Program Comes Full Circle

And there is so much to be proud of!

The Project HOPE Shanghai program team conducted a recent daylong session to evaluate 15 health education programs that focused on CAH (heart disease related), Stroke (blood flow/blockage related), and COPD/OSAS (Lung disease & Sleep Apnea.) These are programs that the HOPE team in China has helped develop, implement and fund.

I had the privilege of serving as an independent evaluator on the panel of four evaluators. I may be the only one without an M.D. or Ph.D. after my name, but I gave it all that any good and fair independent evaluator would in understanding objectives/goals of each program and assessing the effectiveness of processes and outcomes and the application of innovations.

In any case, there was much passion both in the room as well as in implementing these programs at hospitals and medical facilities in Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai. I was really pleased to see the numbers of collaborative networks created as a result of the programs. These networks are a true model of the day-to-day working partnerships needed between Tertiary (Tier 1) Hospitals, Secondary (Tier 2) Hospitals to Community Hospitals as well as Community Centers.  What was more impressive is the knowledge and confidence gained by the medical leaders of these programs, and the plan and desire to continue and expand the programs.

What a day it was for the team and some major dedication from the program leaders, Lisa Zhou and Niki Zhang…very nice job ladies!  Instead of coming up for air, the HOPE team here with Lisa, Niki, Tracy Huang, Gu Shuping, Jenny Xu and Lily Hsu is hard at work on several other programs that are running the next two weeks including the upcoming Yunnan weekend (stay tuned!)  This office is an excellent living example of a very effective “divide and conquer” model as this concept is something close and dear to me!  You have a great and effective team here Lily and Qian Geng!