Heart and brain, one team: Beijing's joined-up ward cares for its first 56 patients

Some patients need two kinds of specialist at once — a blocked heart artery opened and a fragile blood vessel in the brain made safe — and the treatments can pull in opposite directions: blood thinners that protect the heart can endanger the brain. Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing tried a simple answer: one ward where heart and brain doctors work as a single team. In its first two months the Heart–Brain Integrated Ward cared for 56 such patients, and every single one had their case discussed face-to-face by neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, cardiology and neurology doctors together — most of them twice. Forty-one patients went on to have an operation or procedure, 14 of them for both heart and brain, and among the 38 discharged by the time of the report there were no deaths and no major complications. It is an early account, not proof the model beats ordinary care — but it shows joined-up care for the trickiest patients can actually be run, day to day.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: institutional program