Editor's Note:
In the field of obstetrics and gynecology in China, there is a physician who has dedicated over half a century to the frontlines, steadfastly adhering to her original aspirations. Born into a family of doctors, she resolved to heal the sick and save lives from a young age. Having served in the grassroots communities of northwest China, she witnessed firsthand the suffering of women in childbirth, which solidified her mission to safeguard the health of countless women. Leading her department's development, she advanced minimally invasive gynecological surgery and founded a professional journal, securing the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital a place among the nation's key disciplines. Deeply committed to cervical cancer prevention and treatment, she boldly explored clinical protocols and established a national collaborative platform, contributing China's strength to the global goal of eliminating cervical cancer. As a dedicated educator, she has nurtured numerous key talents who have become the backbone of China's obstetrics and gynecology field.
She is Wei Li hui—a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital, an authoritative expert in China's obstetrics and gynecology community. For over five decades in medicine, she has never ceased her journey to protect women's health, using benevolence as her foundation, meticulous research as her wings, and a sense of responsibility as her backbone. Through a lifetime of perseverance and relentless exploration, she has embodied the duty and commitment of a physician.
In this feature, let us follow Professor Wei's narrative and step into her medical journey.
Germination of a Calling: A Medical Family Nurtures a Dream, a Vow to Heal
A physician's calling is often nurtured by subtle influences during growth. Coming from a family of doctors, with both parents practicing medicine, Professor Wei Li hui was exposed early on to the hardships and responsibilities of the profession, deeply moved by the healing spirit of physicians. "Since childhood, I wanted to be a doctor, to heal the sick and save lives like my parents," she says. This simple wish became the guiding principle of her life.
[Professor Wei Li hui in surgery]
Once on the medical path, this calling never wavered. Professor Wei has always harbored a deep love for medicine, approaching every diagnosis, treatment, and research with a meticulous attitude, integrating the belief of "serving the vast number of patients" into every detail of her practice. Her family's legacy not only provided her the opportunity to enter the medical field but also ingrained the physician's responsibility and perseverance into her very being, forming the spiritual foundation for her over half a century of dedication to obstetrics and gynecology.
Tempering in the Grassroots: Practicing in Northwest China, Witnessing Hardship, Defining a Mission
In the impoverished rural northwest of Gansu province last century, medical resources were scarce, and women's reproductive health lacked basic safeguards. Professor Wei Li hui spent six years there, from commune clinics to prefectural hospitals. She witnessed firsthand the hardships of local women giving birth on earthen mounds and the high mortality rates among countless women in difficult labor due to inadequate medical conditions. "Chinese women suffered too much," this sentiment became an indelible mark on her heart, deepening her understanding of the urgent need for healthcare at the grassroots level.
[ Professor Wei Li hui training doctors at a rural county maternal and child health hospital, April 2008]
This grassroots medical experience was a crucial tempering of Professor Wei's sense of mission as a physician, solidifying her dedication to women's health services. She understood deeply that, as doctors, they have the responsibility and duty to guide and protect the health of grassroots women, to improve their well-being. From then on, safeguarding women's health, especially focusing on the medical needs of women at the grassroots level, became her steadfast goal on the medical path, foreshadowing her subsequent deep commitment to obstetrics and gynecology and her focus on preventing and treating major women's diseases.
Leading the Discipline: Meticulous Stewardship, Pioneering Development
In 1986, Professor Wei Li hui became the head of the Gynecology Department at Peking University People's Hospital, taking the helm of the obstetrics and gynecology discipline and embarking on a path of deep disciplinary development. She always believed that an excellent discipline relies on a strong talent pool and robust systems. Thus, she started by cultivating talent and establishing standardized gynecological protocols, laying a solid foundation for the discipline's growth.
[Professors from Cleveland Clinic, USA, visiting People's Hospital, September 2008]
In developing the discipline, Professor Wei closely followed national technological advancements and academic frontiers, accurately identifying industry trends. She dedicated a decade each to in-depth work in ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and cervical cancer, progressing step by step with meticulous research. To promote the dissemination of technology, she initiated various training programs on laparoscopy, complex gynecological conditions, and cervical cancer prevention, allowing advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques to benefit more medical professionals. Leading her team, she propelled the development of the minimally invasive era in gynecology and fostered the growth of the pelvic floor dysfunction subspecialty, ensuring that the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital remained at the forefront of the field, maintaining its status as a national key discipline for many years.
[Group photo of Professor Li Xiaoping (left), Professor Wei Li hui (center), and Professor Wang Jianliu (right)]
On the path of discipline building, Professor Wei understood the importance of platforms. In 2000, she led Professors Cui Heng, Wang Jianliu, and other departmental leaders to establish the Chinese Journal of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. Starting from scratch and overcoming numerous difficulties, the journal has now become a highly influential professional publication in the field. It not only captures and disseminates the latest academic advances but also provides a platform for obstetricians and gynecologists nationwide to showcase their expertise and exchange knowledge, giving China's obstetrics and gynecology community a stronger voice. Under Professor Wei's leadership, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital fostered a tradition of mentorship, with Professors Wang Jianliu and Sun Xiuli successively taking the baton, consistently upholding the discipline's core development and sustaining its advantages.
[Cervical Cancer Team at Peking University People's Hospital]
Pioneering Cancer Prevention: Daring to Innovate, Uniting to Protect Health
Cervical cancer is a major disease severely threatening the health of Chinese women. Data from 2022 shows that new cervical cancer cases in China account for 22.3% of the global total, ranking first in the world. Faced with such a severe disease burden, Professor Wei Li hui deeply realized that effective cervical cancer prevention and treatment is crucial for protecting women's health and millions of families. This became the core motivation for her long-term dedication to this field.
During decades of clinical work, she witnessed numerous distressing patient situations: many women, having neglected screening, were diagnosed at advanced stages, missing the optimal treatment window; others discovered cervical cancer during pregnancy, facing agonizing choices between preserving their lives and their fertility. One patient from another province, accompanied by her children, sought treatment at multiple hospitals before finally seeing Professor Wei. Already at cervical cancer stage II, timely treatment arranged by Professor Wei saved her. Many young pregnant women diagnosed with cervical cancer in their second trimester faced a devastating dilemma: immediate termination of pregnancy and anticancer treatment might save their lives but would forever deprive them of motherhood, shattering family happiness.
[Professor Wei Li hui in discussion with other doctors]
Confronting the clinical challenge of pregnancy-associated cervical cancer, Professor Wei Li hui was determined to make a creative exploration. Drawing on international research indicating that chemotherapy during pregnancy has no significant adverse effects on the fetus, she boldly formulated a personalized protocol: chemotherapy in the second trimester to control the disease → successful delivery → standard postpartum anticancer treatment. Despite the risks and her own anxieties for patient safety and fetal health, her belief that "protecting a woman means protecting a family" kept her steadfast. Through extensive clinical practice, this protocol achieved remarkable success. Many patients not only preserved their lives but also successfully gave birth to healthy babies, with some children now eight or nine years old, restoring family wholeness. Building on this valuable experience, she led the drafting of an expert consensus on pregnancy-associated cervical cancer, making Peking University People's Hospital one of the units with the richest experience in this area in China.
[Collaboration established with the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP), holding annual colposcopy training sessions in China. 17 sessions of the Sino-US Advanced Colposcopy Training Program have been held to date.]
In promoting the national cervical cancer prevention and control system, Professor Wei Li hui also demonstrated foresight. In 2009, the state launched a project for free cervical cancer screening for millions of rural women, greatly advancing prevention efforts. However, unified standards across academic societies were lacking, hindering coordinated action. To address this, in 2015, she spearheaded the establishment of the Chinese Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (CSCCP) under the Chinese Society of Healthy Birth Science. This not only aligned with international nomenclature but also integrated experts from clinical practice, epidemiology, maternal and child health, oncology, basic research, and public health, creating a unified national academic platform for cervical cancer prevention.
[2015 CSCCP Inaugural Conference]
Since its establishment, CSCCP has developed a series of authoritative expert consensuses and clinical guidelines based on China's context. It holds annual national academic conferences attracting over a thousand participants, fostering industry consensus and promoting standardized techniques. In November 2020, when the World Health Organization launched the Global Strategy to Accelerate the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, China actively responded. CSCCP facilitated the alignment of China's prevention practices with international standards, integrating Chinese experience into global action. After over a decade of development, CSCCP has become the most influential academic organization for cervical cancer prevention in China, providing core leadership for establishing a unified, standardized, and accessible national prevention and control system. It enables systematic and steady progress towards the goal of eliminating cervical cancer.
A Legacy of Mentorship: Nurturing Talent, Continuing the Legacy
As a physician, she heals with skill and compassion; as a mentor, she educates with grace. Professor Wei Li hui has devoted her life to nurturing talent, considering the cultivation of obstetric and gynecological professionals a vital mission. Over decades of teaching, she has mentored numerous doctoral and master's students and key personnel. Her disciples are now spread across the country, serving as department heads and academic leaders, forming the backbone of China's obstetrics and gynecology development.
[Professor Wei Li hui with graduate students, 2015]
Therefore, whenever she flips through the commemorative album containing records of all her students, seeing them deeply engaged in their work, safeguarding women's health, Professor Wei feels profound gratification and pride. These students cherish their learning opportunities, inheriting her medical ethos and professional spirit, serving women's health in their respective positions. Their annual reports of achievements are the best testament to her educational success.
[Professor Wei Li hui with students on Teachers' Day, 2015]
To young medical professionals and students, Professor Wei Li hui offers this advice: Hold fast to the physician's calling, preserving a passion for medicine; delve deeply into your specialty, dare to innovate, and stay attuned to academic frontiers; keep patients at heart, be willing to sacrifice, and make health protection a lifelong mission. Only by being down-to-earth and making the most of your time can you progress steadily on the medical path, continuing to write splendid chapters for China's women's health cause.
Conclusion: A Steadfast Calling, a Mission, Steps Unceasing Towards the Future
For over fifty years in medicine, Professor Wei Li hui's life has been intricately linked with the cause of obstetrics and gynecology. From the germination of her calling in a medical family to the tempering of her mission in the grassroots northwest; from leading disciplinary development to pioneering explorations in cervical cancer prevention; from skilled and compassionate clinical work to mentoring and passing the torch, she has always taken "healing the sick and saving lives" as her original aspiration and "safeguarding women's health" as her mission. With a meticulous and professional attitude, a daring and innovative spirit, and a unifying sense of responsibility for the profession, she has left an indelible mark on China's field of obstetrics and gynecology.
Now, though retired for years, Professor Wei remains deeply concerned with cervical cancer prevention, follows the development of obstetrics and gynecology, and guides young medical professionals. Her journey shows us that a physician's calling is rooted in clinical perseverance, dedication to scholarly research, compassion for patients, and the responsibility of mentorship. On the path to eliminating cervical cancer and protecting women's health, Professor Wei Li hui's exploration and steadfastness shine like a beacon, illuminating the way for the profession and inspiring generations of young physicians to cherish their time, persevere, hold fast to their初心 (original aspiration), and walk steadily and far on the medical path.
Expert Profile: Wei Li hui, Professor
Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Peking University People's Hospital; Chief Physician; Doctoral Supervisor; Recipient of the State Council Special Allowance.
❖ Professional Appointments: Honorary Director, Peking University Obstetrics and Gynecology Department; Chairman, Chinese Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (CSCCP) of the Chinese Society of Healthy Birth Science; Member, International Federation for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy (IFCPC); Member, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP); Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Chinese Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Editor-in-Chief, Chinese Journal of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology.
❖ Academic Contributions: Made significant contributions to advancing medical care, scientific research, and education in obstetrics and gynecology in China, possessing profound research foundation and practical experience, especially in the prevention and control of cervical cancer. Has released featured videos on this topic on the People's Daily Health Client during the Two Sessions "Health Policy" live programs. Served as Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Peking University People's Hospital for many years, pioneering the establishment of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at Peking University, forming the disciplinary strengths of Peking University's obstetrics and gynecology. In recent years, has promoted China's cervical cancer prevention efforts onto the world stage.
❖ Honors and Achievements: Recipient of multiple First, Second, and Third Prizes for Science and Technology from the Ministry of Education, Chinese Medical Association, Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, and Beijing Municipality; China Physician Award; author of over 400 research papers; editor/author of several professional books; has supervised 76 master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students.
Note: Images provided by Professor Wei Li hui.
Editor: Lily
