On the afternoon of December 19, Professor Markus Büchler, Director of the European Pancreatic Center, signed a cooperation agreement on behalf of the Heidelberg Pancreatic Center and Professor Yi Miao from the Pancreas Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. The Heidelberg-Nanjing Pancreatic Research Institute was officially established. The two parties will cooperate closely in clinical, scientific research, education, and management. Secretary Changqing Wang of Nanjing Medical University, Deputy Director Qing Lan of Jiangsu Provincial Health Committee, Secretary Jinhai Tang and President Zhao Jun of Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital attended the signing ceremony. Secretary Changqing Wang, Deputy Director Qing Lan and Secretary Jinhai Tang made important speeches.

     The University of Heidelberg has given birth to 12 Nobel Prize winners. Its School of Surgery has a long history and is the cradle of many surgical originators. Professor Büchler is the current Dean and Director of Surgery at Heidelberg University Surgery Hospital. He is currently the only honorary doctorate of Nanjing Medical University. He founded the Surgical Clinical Research Center of Heidelberg University in Germany, chaired a number of European multi-center clinical trials and published articles more than 2600. Many articles have been included in journals such as NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, etc., with a citation index> 81,000, an H index of 150, and an I10 index of 295. The Heidelberg Pancreatic Center under his leadership and the Pancreas Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University have established a solid foundation of cooperation in the past ten years. In the future, the cooperation between the two sides will have both breadth and depth.

     The Pancreas Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University has been developing rapidly since its establishment in 2014. The annual volume of pancreatic surgery has grown from the initial 300 cases to more than 1,000 today. On December 9 this year, the volume of pancreatic surgery throughout the year exceeded one thousand. Of these 1,000 operations, 413 cases were pancreaticoduodenectomies (Whipple operation), 232 cases were distal pancreatectomies, and 52 cases were middle pancreatectomies. Institution with more than 20 cases of pancreatic surgery per year can be called "High-Volume Center".

     On the morning of the 19th, Professor Büchler visited the operating room to watch the pancreaticoduodenectomy performed by Professor Miao Yi, and gave a high evaluation of Professor Yi Miao's surgical skills, as well as the standardization and high quality of the operation. He said: "I was shocked by Professor Miao's surgical skills and the high quality of the Nanjing Pancreas Center surgery, which is the operation that pancreatic cancer patients need." Professor Büchler highly affirmed the "arterial divestment" proposed by Professor Miao for the treatment of arterial invasion pancreatic cancer, and agreed that Heidelberg would also learn this technique and promote it in clinical practice. Professor Büchler also officially announced in the afternoon lecture that Nanjing Pancreas Center will become a member of ESPAC multi-center research. ESPAC is the highest-level research organization in the field of pancreatic cancer research, and it is the vane of the guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. The Pancreas Center will become the only ESPAC member currently in Asia.

     The establishment of the Heidelberg-Nanjing Pancreatic Institute will have far-reaching significance for further strengthening the technological docking, talent mobility, and complementary management of the two sides. The Pancreas Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University is now gaining momentum. The Center will continue to maintain a pioneering attitude and seize the opportunity of cooperation with the Heidelberg Pancreas Center to achieve greater breakthroughs, benefit the majority of patients and help Jiangsu's high-quality development of health care.