Micro-Innovations, Major Impact: Anzheng Hospital's Blueprint for Clinical Translation and Commercialization

In a bright, white conference room, a group of people are seated around a conference table, holding an online meeting with a remote team via a large screen and camera.

The design here is distinctly modern, with seating comprised of ergonomic chairs favored by major internet companies. Carefully cultivated greenery and specially curated sofas can be found throughout the area outside the conference room.

If one were to judge solely by the description, one might assume this is an emerging high-tech startup. Yet, judging by the outcomes, it has indeed given rise to numerous cutting-edge technological products that have been deployed in clinical practice, thereby benefiting a vast population of patients.

But in reality, this is located on the 13th floor of the outpatient building of Beijing Anzhen Hospital.Beijing Anzhen Hospital Innovation Center, a tangible manifestation of Anzhen Hospital’s grand blueprint for innovation and translational medicine.

Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, was established in 1984 and is a Grade A tertiary general hospital specializing in the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

The hospital currently has one national key discipline (Cardiology Center) and three national clinical key specialties (Cardiac Surgery Center, Cardiology Center, and Geriatrics Department),Leading Position in China's Cardiovascular Field。

Under the leadership of a new generation of outstanding talents, including Professor Zhang Hongjia, Professor Ma Changsheng, Professor Zhou Yujie, Professor Wang Xiao, and Professor Jiang Chenxi from the Department of Cardiology; Professor Xu Lei from the Department of Medical Imaging; Professor Wang Sheng from the Anesthesia and Surgical Center; and Professor Nie Shaoping, Director of the Critical Care Center, Beijing Anzhen Hospital has achieved balanced development through dual pillars of clinical practice and scientific research.

In 2023, Anzhen Hospital recorded over 2.3 million outpatient and emergency visits, with 115,700 discharged patients. Cardiovascular surgeries accounted for a significant proportion, including more than 50,000 interventional cardiology procedures and over 20,000 cardiac surgery cases.

This substantial surgical volume has enabled the medical staff at Anzhen Hospital to accumulate significant expertise in cardiovascular diagnosis and treatment, thereby building momentum for a breakthrough in translational medicine.

With a vast patient base accumulated through its strong clinical departments, Beijing Anzhen Hospital’s path to innovation and translation features distinctive characteristics.

Innovation Requires Data. Anzhen Hospital has a significant advantage in this regard.

Under the leadership of Zhang Hong, the then president of the hospital, the Key Laboratory of Medical Engineering for Cardiovascular Diseases of the Ministry of Education and the Beijing Laboratory of Precision Medicine for Cardiovascular Diseases have collected and accumulatedThe World's Largest Clinical Biobank for Cardiovascular Diseases。

The database contains over 297,000 blood samples, more than 2,450 tissue samples, over 20,000 clinical data records, more than 6,000 aortic imaging cases, and over 20,000 coronary artery imaging cases.

These data have directly facilitated the establishment of a high-risk early warning and decision-support treatment system for acute aortic syndrome, which has been clinically implemented in over 100 hospitals. In the medium to long term, they have also provided fertile ground for the incubation of new scientific achievements and clinical applications.

Above the data lies research.As the institution undertaking the GCP platform project under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Major Special Project for New Drug Innovation during the “12th Five-Year Plan” and “13th Five-Year Plan” periods, the National Clinical Research Center for Cardiovascular Diseases at Anzhen HospitalCardiovascular Drug R&D, Exploration of Diversified Collaboration Models, Technology Transfer, and Clinical Registrationhave played a significant role in these areas.

After more than a decade of establishment, the Center has successfully implemented legal entity contracting, mutual recognition of ethical reviews, and standardization, while building a collaborative network system covering over 100 hospitals across China, thereby further enhancing overall collaborative efficiency.

andResearch That Can Be Implemented Requires Corporate Participation. Since January 2020, Beijing Anzhen Hospital has successively established joint laboratories and R&D bases in collaboration with four enterprises, including:Anzhen-Huanuo Aomei Joint Laboratory, Anzhen-Keya Joint Laboratory, Anzhen-Weici Joint Laboratory, Anzhen-Bairen Joint Laboratory。

Four laboratories have each entered the clinical application of cardiovascular disease from four perspectives: genetic testing, AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment technology, magnetocardiography, and valvular heart disease.

Within the jointly established dialogue mechanism, hospitals and enterprises engage in open discussions on clinical needs and corporate capabilities, aiming to address clinical demands through efficient and aligned communication.

Beijing Anzhen Hospital’s Innovation Translation Has Rapidly Yielded Results in Recent Years: Are There Any Secrets That Set It Apart from Others?

As the leader of top-level design, Professor Zhang Hongjia, the current Party Secretary, has made indispensable contributions.

In his youth, Professor Zhang Hongjia was an outstanding frontline clinician with the expertise to tackle surgical treatment for aortic dissection. To build a solid foundation, he performed 3,000 surgeries over five years. In 2006, he successfully completed a total thoracoabdominal aortic replacement procedure. At that time, fewer than ten surgeons in China were capable of successfully performing this operation.

Professor Zhang Hongjia has always firmly believed, “No matter how skilled a surgeon is, they can only save a few lives; however, if a clinician excels in scientific research, they can drive change across the entire industry.” Motivated by this conviction, after being appointed as Director of the Hospital’s Research Department in 2008, Professor Zhang placed greater emphasis on strengthening the hospital’s academic and research capabilities.

On one hand, he spearheaded the establishment and accumulation of clinical sample banks., thereby facilitating the establishment of the world’s largest cardiovascular clinical biobank mentioned above. Professor Zhang Hongjia rigorously screened data and formulated inclusion criteria, with the aim of ensuring that these high-quality data would serve a valuable purpose in the future.

On the other hand, he is also acutely aware that industry evolution and clinical practice are inextricably linked.. Professor Zhang Hongjia continued to advance the establishment of the science and technology innovation center, creating an ecosystem where physicians and enterprises can engage in dialogue at any time and spark innovative ideas through continuous interaction.

It is hard for such a leader, who is not only experienced and accomplished in clinical practice but also has a long-standing commitment to the translation of scientific research, to fail to achieve outstanding results.

As a leading specialized hospital in the field of cardiovascular medicine, the physicians at Anzhen Hospital have naturally been exposed toExtensive experience in the use of surgical instruments。

Frequent use of medical devices naturally reveals their ergonomic suitability, areas for improvement, and the true pain points on the operating table. This also explains Anzhen Hospital’s uniqueMicro-Innovation-Based Achievement Transformation。

According to the latest edition of the China Hospital Innovation and Transformation Ranking, Anzhen Hospital filed 152 patent applications in 2023, achieved the transformation of 11 patents, and reached a cumulative total of 25 transformations over the past three years. Among the transformed achievements, the vast majority focus onMicro-Innovation and Iterative Upgrades of Surgical Instruments and Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in the Cardiovascular Field。

In 2023, Professor Zeng Yong and his team from the Third Department of Coronary Heart Disease successfully commercialized the patent titled “Method for Training Prediction Models for Coronary Heart Disease and Related Products,” with a transaction value of RMB 920,000. By leveraging artificial intelligence and deep learning technologies, this innovation is expected to enhance the accuracy of coronary heart disease prediction through retinal image recognition.

In 2022, Professor Zhou Yujie successfully transferred the patent for “a biodegradable personalized non-cylindrical biomimetic drug-eluting coronary stent” to Beijing Amet Medical Devices and implemented it in clinical practice.

In 2021, Yuewei Medical was co-founded by Dr. Yu Wenyuan, former attending physician in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Anzhen Hospital, and Professor Yu Yang. The company focuses on the research and development of medical devices for cardiac surgery and heart failure. Its PVAD product addresses the insufficient flow rate issue associated with traditional pulsatile PVADs, while also reducing costs and enhancing safety. Yuewei Medical completed its Series A+ financing round, raising nearly RMB 100 million, in late 2023.

As mentioned above,The Joint Laboratory Co-established by the Hospital and Enterprise Has Also Yielded Fruitful Results。

Anzhen-Huanuo Aomei Joint LaboratorySigned a cooperation agreement with Beijing Anzhen Hospital for the construction of a Cardiovascular Cognitive Center and clinical research translation, with total funding reaching RMB 45 million; during the collaboration, secured two patents, published more than ten academic papers, and received support from the Science and Technology Innovation Fund for six joint medical-enterprise research projects.

Anzhen-Keya Joint LaboratorySuccessfully approved to establish the Beijing Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Treatment, it has undertaken seven national and municipal-level scientific research projects with supporting funds exceeding RMB 6.3 million. To date, the laboratory has been granted seven patents of various types, and its shockwave balloon catheter has passed type testing.

Anzhen-Weici Joint LaboratoryEstablished China’s first “Training Base for Magnetocardiography Equipment Technology and Clinical Application” and launched the world’s first 64-channel atomic magnetometer-based magnetocardiograph. By the end of 2023, it had conducted over 7,000 examinations.

Anzhen-Bairen Joint LaboratoryMultiple research outputs have been successfully translated into practical applications. In addition to securing approval for scientific research projects from the Science and Technology Commission and submitting invention patents for examination, three products are currently undergoing clinical trials, one product has passed the review for the innovative pathway and had its registration application accepted, and one product has been submitted for testing to both the U.S. FDA and Chinese regulatory authorities for registration.

These innovations all stem from genuine needs and real-world problems encountered in clinical practice, and the translation of these achievements into practical applications is invariably guided by the aim of providing authentic solutions.

Although the emergence of a single drug can disrupt an entire subsector of the healthcare market, incremental innovations in medical devices offer significant advantages in terms of time and effort savings compared to the drug development process, which consumes substantial time, resources, and capital.

Particularly in the cardiovascular field, improvements in medical devices not only help reduce costs and enhance therapeutic efficacy but also improve user experience and lower the barrier to adoption, yielding comprehensive benefits. This extends beyond direct costs and revenue; from a health economics perspective, such advancements also deliver long-term gains.

Leveraging its extensive talent pool and large patient base in the cardiovascular field, Beijing Anzhen Hospital has demonstrated unique advantages in micro-innovation of medical devices, achieving remarkable results. These strengths and accomplishments will undoubtedly further advance cardiovascular healthcare, improving treatment outcomes and quality of life for patients.