A quality control center for liver transplants was set up recently at the Shanghai health bureau.

A regulation by the Ministry of Health on human organ transplants also took effect this month.

The ministry will soon publish a list of medical institutions qualified to carry out organ transplant operations. Hospitals not on the list will be forbidden to conduct such procedures.

Seven hospitals in Shanghai have applied for qualification.

The new control center will oversee all liver transplants. A committee has been formed consisting of medical experts. The committee will set standard requirements for liver transplants, including indications, medication after surgery, and long-term disease management.

Renji Hospital, of the seven applicants, has launched a plan to encourage "living donors" especially families who can save the life of a loved one.

"Transplants from living donors boosts the quality of the liver supply, and decreases the death rate of patients during the waiting period," said Xia Qiang, director of the liver transplant center at Renji Hospital.

The hospital, the first in China to undertake liver transplants, is also conducting research into living donor liver transplants.

According to Shen Bo, deputy director of the transplant center at Ruijin Hospital, the number of liver transplant operations last year in China was second only to the United States.

"The regulations have come at an opportune time. They follow medical rules recognized all over the world, and instructions by the WHO on human organ transplants.

"They will help China's medical practitioners gain international recognition in the industry," Shen said.

Ruijin's organ transplant center was founded in 2002, and since then about 300 operations have been conducted, nine of which were liver transplants from living donors. The hospital has an ethics committee on the management of organ transplants.

Before each operation an evaluation of the patient and donor's physical and mental health is done, and other related issues discussed.

(China Daily May 24, 2007)