This Chinese doctor wants everyone to hear the world clearly, and his experience and practices promote children globally | internationally | globally
"There are very few deaf and mute people under the age of 20 in our country! Shanghai's deaf and mute schools, from 22 30 years ago to 2 now, guess how many new students were admitted last year -4. I am still anxious, why were these 4 children not detected through newborn hearing screening? Why was there no early intervention?"
Chatting with Wu Hao, these few words were somewhat vivid and had a shocking "rock shattering shock" effect - indeed, the deaf mute schools that were occasionally seen on the streets have gradually "disappeared"
The efforts of Wu Hao and his colleagues, recognized by national legislation, have saved the happiness of many deaf children and families!
He is cutting off his lifelong professional career path - striving to make deaf and mute children infinitely close to "0"!
He is shifting from a "small" focus to an "old" one, and one of the secondary factors of Alzheimer's is hearing loss in old age. Can it be blocked?
For Wu Hao, Dean of the Ninth People's Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Chairman of the East Asian Otology Society, if he only does one thing in his life, he chooses to make the world mute and let everyone "hear" the world clearly.
The efforts of Chinese doctors have become a national behavior and have also been heard by the world.
The World Health Organization once held a meeting in Kathmandu, and Wu Hao was invited to introduce the practice of newborn hearing screening in China, which was praised as the "newborn screening model suitable for developing countries" and has been promoted globally.
Wu Hao is on a ward round, examining a child who has undergone cochlear implant surgery
"Your speech is delayed"? Actually, ten deaf and nine mute! Not letting them regret for life
See two videos.
One is more than 20 years ago, a deaf and mute school trained deaf girl who worked hard to pronounce in front of the camera, but others still couldn't understand... And a few years ago, a handsome boy was interviewed by a TV station and talked confidently, completely unable to tell that he was born deaf.
In the population, the incidence of congenital hearing loss is 1 ‰ -3 ‰. China adds over 30000 children with hearing impairment each year - ten deaf and nine mute, who will become the "source of students" for deaf and mute schools in the future.
When parents discover that their two to three year old child has missed the window of language acquisition due to being late in speaking, they will be shocked for a lifetime.
In the 1990s, China was once the country with the most deaf and mute schools in the world; By 2021, although special education has made significant progress, the number of deaf mute schools has decreased by more than half - due to a sharp decline in the number of people with hearing disabilities in China.
How did all of this happen?
Wu Hao's team is a master of cochlear implant surgery. Through prospective cohort studies, it was found that implantation surgery under the age of 1 is safe and significantly improves postoperative language development, environmental adaptation, and social skills.
Can we "find" them from birth?
In 2001, Wu Hao, who was transferred to Xinhua Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, became the first director of the Children's Hearing Screening Center and led a team to attempt large-scale newborn hearing screening in the delivery room.
Developed countries have newborn hearing impairment screening systems, but they are costly, complex to operate, and require professional audiologists. This does not conform to the national conditions and is difficult to copy. The Wu Hao team has conducted several experimental studies and found that anchoring otoacoustic emission technology is easy to operate, even for nurses in rural hospital delivery rooms who have received training to master it. The disadvantage is the presence of false positives. They continued to study and found that the screening before and after 72 hours of birth had the lowest false positive rate; For children who are suspected during the first screening, follow-up and retesting after four weeks of birth can continue to reduce false positives.
Their "Newborn Hearing Screening and Diagnosis and Treatment Plan" was simplified into a "three-step method", which was extremely easy to operate and quickly spread in Shanghai; In 2009, newborn hearing screening in the delivery room was included in the national statutory project promotion, and the coverage rate increased from 29.9% in 2008 to 86.5% in 2016. The diagnosis and intervention age for congenital deafness was significantly earlier.
In 2009, Wu Hao went to Xizang to carry out a charity operation for cochlear implant. At the moment, there was no suitable deaf child under the age of 2 for surgery in the local area. Firstly, there is a lack of widespread prenatal screening, and secondly, nearly half of the local newborns are born at home, making it difficult to detect.
We cannot let them slip through the net.
The Wu Hao team has written a research report on hearing screening in various parts of the country. In 2014, the Ministry of Health launched a national hearing screening project for newborns in poverty-stricken areas, involving 490000 newborns; Various regions have successively opened hearing impairment diagnosis and treatment centers, and now China has achieved full coverage.
Wu Hao and his first case of cochlear implant in children during poverty alleviation in Lhasa
However, there are still children who have passed the screening and may experience learning difficulties due to hearing problems in the future. The Wu Hao team selected the new students enrolled in Yangpu District in 2006 to conduct hearing screening and found that these children were suffering from delayed onset deafness. Returning to the laboratory for repeated research, we have identified susceptibility genes for late-onset hearing loss, which have been labeled. Through genetic screening, such children have the opportunity for early detection and intervention.
Layer by layer screening and strict control. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese children have avoided the trap of lifelong deafness and disability.
Wu Hao and his colleagues have made unremitting efforts beyond their main medical profession, which has become a national action. China's careful investment in eliminating the deaf and mute has greatly enhanced the happiness of related children and families in life.
In 2019, Wu Hao completed the first pediatric auditory brainstem implantation surgery in China for this 2-year-old child
Follow the trend and challenge difficult surgery, eliminate 8%!
So, what happened to the "four students" who entered Shanghai Deaf School last year?
Wu Hao, the leader of the Newborn Disease Screening, Hearing Diagnosis and Treatment Group of the National Health Commission, conducted an investigation one by one: it turned out that they were born without auditory nerves and could not restore hearing through cochlear implants. This accounts for 5% -8% of congenital deafness.
What should we do? The team led by Wu Hao braved the challenge.
In January 2019, they completed the first pediatric auditory brainstem implantation surgery in China. A circuit board with a diameter of only 5 millimeters was precisely implanted into the deep auditory center of a 2-year-old child's brain. By stimulating auditory neurons, the child responded to sound - an extremely complex and difficult surgery, equivalent to "embroidery" on a nail tip. At the beginning, a surgery takes nearly ten hours and can make the doctor feel paralyzed. Only a few doctors internationally dare to try.
Now, this four year old girl can listen and speak. Shanghai Ninth Hospital has also become the largest treatment center in China engaged in pediatric auditory brainstem implantation surgery, completing 108 surgeries with an average surgery time shortened to about 5 hours.
Wu Hao, an expert in otolaryngology and head and neck surgery, as well as the chairman of the otolaryngology and head and neck surgery branch of the Chinese Medical Association, has significant influence in the field of international auditory reconstruction; In the fields of high difficulty surgeries such as deafness, acoustic neuroma, and jugular foramen tumor, he is an international level expert and has completed more than 3000 ear nerve skull base surgeries. His surgical resection rate, incidence of complications, and functional preservation rate have all reached the international advanced level.
He laughed and said that from 1996 to 1998, he worked as a clinical postdoctoral fellow at the Ear Neurosurgery Center of Beaujon Hospital at the Seventh University of Paris in France, which elevated his professional level. At the age of 32, he rushed to learn French with tenacious perseverance, passed the French Foreign Doctor Examination, and became a resident physician. "Otherwise, we can only 'see surgery' and not 'perform surgery'." Wu Hao said that performing surgery in an area of the skull base with dense nerves in the eyes, ears, nose, and throat is too risky, and even a small mistake can seriously affect the patient's quality of life.
The cochlea is a critical area of hearing loss, and early implantation of cochlear implants is an important means of reconstructing hearing. Wu Hao has successfully performed the first robot assisted cochlear implant surgery in children internationally, and the first auditory brainstem implantation surgery in China, with a success rate of 100%, is the only physician in China and one of the few internationally who has performed this highly difficult surgery. He therefore led the development of an international expert consensus on the diagnosis of hearing impairment in children and participated in the development of an international expert consensus on cochlear implant.
However, Wu Hao is not satisfied with being a renowned surgeon.
Wu Hao is undergoing surgery to remove lateral skull base tumors
Anchoring clinical research and benefiting more patients, Jiuyuan has taken the top spot in domestic hospital innovation and transformation rankings
Interview with Wu Hao, originally originating from recent news - the 2022 Shanghai Science and Technology Award, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital won three first prizes for scientific and technological progress, and one person won the "Outstanding Contribution Award for Youth Science and Technology" - for a hospital, it is "too" outstanding.
At the same time, Wu Hao's team published the latest achievement on NATURE COMMUNICations: for the first time, a new mechanism of cochlear synaptic lesions has been revealed at the molecular level, providing new ideas for exploring sound coding mechanisms and the prevention and treatment of cochlear synaptic lesions.
In July 2022, the "China Hospital Innovation and Transformation Ranking" was first released. Shanghai Ninth Hospital is renowned for its head and neck specialties, which are not comprehensive enough or large enough. Surprisingly, it surpassed a number of super large tertiary hospitals in the country and won first place.
Da Jiangdong Studio is curious: In the current era where technological innovation and achievement transformation are highly valued, how can Wu Hao, who has been the dean for 8 years, lead the Ninth Academy to break through the encirclement?
Young doctor, I often hear Dean Wu's earnest words:
"Doctors' scientific research should not only focus on promotion. They should do meaningful things and solve clinical problems through scientific research."
"Excellent doctors not only need to know how to perform surgeries, but also need to become doctors and scientists."
"Hospitals have always advocated scientific research. Basic, clinical, applied, and translational aspects are all important, with the most important being guidance."
Wu Hao took the lead in setting an example.
He has published 151 SCI papers as the first or corresponding author in international academic journals, and has led or participated in the development of 10 industry technical specifications, guidelines, and consensus.
Building mechanisms for clinical research and scientific innovation. In Shanghai, the Ninth Hospital established a clinical research center earlier and built a medical engineering cross platform. In 2022, it will become the only medical institution to receive the Shanghai Intellectual Property Achievement Award.
The goal of scientific research innovation is to benefit more patients.
After a breakthrough in difficult surgery, they developed an auditory brainstem implant device and initiated registration applications with the drug regulatory department. "We hope to obtain the registration certificate smoothly, convert production as soon as possible, and increase the price of the implant device from the international four to five hundred thousand yuan to about 200000 yuan." Wu Hao is still working hard to include it in Shanghai medical insurance.
Wu Hao is demonstrating the surgical pathway for lateral skull base tumors to doctors
There are fewer deaf children, and Wu Hao is firmly anchored to age-related deafness.
The elderly have poor hearing, are silent, and are prone to Alzheimer's disease. "Society and families do not attach enough importance to the elderly's hearing loss," Wu Hao was very anxious.
Five years ago, they established research queues on elderly hearing health in communities in Baoshan and Pudong, Shanghai, conducting gene sequencing and intervention studies to understand the occurrence of age-related hearing loss, which genes are at work, whether genetic screening can be used for early intervention, and to discover new drugs.
They also investigated the hearing loss of people working in high noise environments for a long time and searched for genes that are sensitive to noise.
They innovated through virus vector modification and inner ear drug delivery routes, achieving targeted transfection and gene editing of different types of inner ear cells, and for the first time achieving hearing recovery in adult deaf mice internationally
In Wu Hao's view, in the future, artificial auditory effects will be better. Through basic research, a better encoding mechanism can be formed to enable cochlear implants to extract more information during sound conversion, allowing patients to hear more natural sounds. Combining gene therapy to regenerate inner ear cells
Wu Hao, who is almost sixty years old, has a bright eye when it comes to the future.
