Warm Congratulations to Academician Yazhu Chen of Shanghai Jiao Tong University for Winning the 2019 Shanghai Science and Technology Meritorious Worker Award!

On May 19, 2020, the Shanghai Science and Technology Award Ceremony was held to honor scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the development and modernization of Shanghai's science and technology. 84-year-old Yazhu Chen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary president of the School of Biomedical Engineering at Shanghai Jiaotong University, received the Shanghai Science and Technology Meritorious Worker Award in recognition of her distinguished contributions to the nationalization and industrialization of high-end medical devices.

Develop extracorporeal lithotripsy devices with medical-engineering interdisciplinary technology

Academician Chen Yazhu is the pioneer and leader in the research and development of large medical devices in China. In the 1980s, in order to enable domestic patients with kidney stones to receive the most advanced non-invasive treatment with an affordable price, Academician Chen, as the precursor of high voltage technology, decided to devote herself to biomedical engineering and engage in the development of extracorporeal lithotripsy equipment.

At that time, extracorporeal lithotripsy was an emerging technology of interdisciplinary integration of electronics, computer, automatic control, imaging, medicine and other disciplines. Lack of relevant precedents and scientific research funds posed great obstacles to the research. Despite the dilemmas, Academician Chen was still full of ambition to develop an extracorporeal lithotripsy device to save patients with kidney stones from the pain of surgery. 

Facing great barriers in medical-engineering Interdisciplinary technology, Academician Chen and her team started from scratch and tried every effort to overcome the difficulties. To solve the financial matter, she went around and got 400,000 low-interest loans from the Natural Science Foundation with the support of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission. By the end of 1985, she successfully built the extracorporeal lithotripter, the price of which was one tenth of imported equipments.

Keep up the good work to reach new heights in non-invasive treatment.

Since the 1990s, Academician Chen Yazhu had participated in the physical therapy of tumor, and pursued the peak of science and technology. She took the lead in proposing the development of "new phased-array electron-focused multi-modal treatment technology", which opened up new ideas of non-invasive tumor treatment. With  more than 20 years of efforts, she successfully developed the "High-intensity Focused Ultrasound System" which is applicable to the non-invasive treatment of various tumors.

In the spirit of tough determination to transform the results of phased focused ultrasound technology and the aspiration to serve the public, Academician Chen has been cooperating with Zhonghui medical technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd on the industrialization exploitation. At present, the first phased-array high-intensity focused ultrasound uterine fibroid treatment device "Ultra-wave Knife" has been tested in multiple hospitals, and is expected to be launched in China in the near future.

For a long time, tumor treatment mainly relies on surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and other means from which patients have to suffer great pain. As a kind of non-invasive treatment technology, “Ultra-wave Knife” is focused into the body through extracorporeal phased array to achieve coagulative necrosis in the target area without side effects, which greatly reduces patients’ pain.

Clinical trials of “Ultra-wave Knife” have shown promising results.

The first "Ultra-wave knife" has been undergoing clinical trials at the International Peace Maternity & Child Health Hospital of China welfare institute (IPMCH) since October 2018.

During the trial, Academician Chen visited the treatment site for many times to guide the clinical work. After in-depth communication with doctors and patient, Academician Chen put forward valuable opinions on the equipment and treatment process, which significantly improved the clinical treatment effect.

By November 2019, IPMCH had completed the treatment of 50 cases of patients with uterine fibroids. Preliminary follow-up results showed that the ablation rate of uterine fibroids could reach more than 90%, and the volumetric shrinkage of fibroids could reach up to more than 70%.