Ji Xiaocheng (; 2 November 1923 – 23 October 2019) was a Chinese paediatrician who served as Director of Paediatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. In the early 1980s, he introduced

perinatal medicine Prenatal development () includes the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal devel ...

to China from the United States, and co-founded China's first

neonatal intensive care unit A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life. Neonatal care, as kn ...

at PUMC Hospital.

Biography

Ji Xiaocheng was born in November 1923 in Renqiu, Hebei,

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. He studied at Beijing Medical College under professor Zhu Futang, and graduated in 1948. He went to the Soviet Union in 1955 to study at the Leningrad Institute of Paediatrics, where he earned an associate doctor degree three and half years later. Ji worked at the Institute of Paediatrics of Beijing Children's Hospital after returning to China. In 1961, he was transferred to the Department of Paediatrics at Peking Union Medical College Hospital, where he worked under doctors Zhou Huakang 周华康 and Lin Qiaozhi. He served as deputy director and then director of the department from 1982 to 1985. After the People's Republic of China and the United States established diplomatic relations in 1979, Ji was sponsored by the China Medical Board to study modern medical practices in the United States at the University of California, San Diego. Upon returning to China, he introduced

to the country, and together with doctors Zhou Huakang and Zhao Shimin 赵时敏, established China's first

at PUMC Hospital. From 1985 to 1989, Ji organized ten Chinese hospitals to participate in the perinatal medicine program of the United Nations Population Fund and helped propagate modern perinatal practices in China.

Personal life

Ji married in 1944 to a college classmate. His wife worked in the Ministry of Health and predeceased him. The couple had two daughters. Ji retired in 1991. He died on 23 October 2019, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ji, Xiaocheng 1923 births 2019 deaths Chinese paediatricians People from Cangzhou Peking University alumni Academic staff of Peking Union Medical College Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union Chinese expatriates in the United States Physicians from Hebei