Our medical volunteer partners from the USA, England, Canada, Japan and Singapore are among the most respected clinicians and researchers in their field. Our newest medical volunteers from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, are no exception.

In June the Alder Hey team went to Qingdao Women and Children’s Hospital in China on their first training visit with Children’s HeartLink. The volunteer team hails from one of the largest children’s hospitals in the UK.

Alder Hey recently unveiled plans to use Microsoft technology to enhance cooperation among doctors and improve surgical procedures, through the use of large-screen Surface Hubs in meeting rooms and HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset, in operating rooms.

“It’s incredibly important that we embrace technology to get our best people out there and do extraordinary things,” says Alder Hey Clinical Director of Innovation Iain Hennessey. “At the end of the day, the health of children is more important than anything else.”

Alder Hey is working with Microsoft partner Black Marble to develop an app and introduce the technology.

“Imaging a patient’s heart from the inside and from the outside is absolutely essential,” says Dr. Rafael Guerrero, a cardiac surgeon at Alder Hey and Children’s HeartLink medical volunteer. “I have to visualize that 3D view in my head in order to do this operation. Microsoft HoloLens and mixed reality will, in the future, enable me to have a patient’s scans in front of me while I’m doing the operation. If I can use technology to obtain that information, to see those images in front of me, that helps me tremendously and improves the outcome for my patient.”

We have been working in China for almost 20 years, having established two Children’s HeartLink Centers of Excellence that are training centers for more programs throughout the region. The hospital in Qingdao is our fifth partner in the country.