五月清晨起床給河南省直第三人民醫院周紅剛主任通電話，我告訴他：“你們椎間盤中心已經是國家重點專科了。微創技術你們已是中國脊柱事業的天花板了，在德國，真正意義的脊柱中心必須要開展微創技術，側彎畸形技術和脊柱腫瘤技術。微創技術是標配，側彎畸形技術是實力，脊柱腫瘤技術是高精尖，微創手術易學簡單，哪家醫院都容易開展，所以微創技術沒有護城河，只有瓶頸。德國是三級診療體系，從家庭醫生到專科醫院再到大學附屬醫院。能展示你這家醫院這個科室水平的就是所有脊柱重大疑難疾病你都可以輕松搞定。大型脊柱手術微創技術是完全搞不定的，你必須要建立護城河。由于德國人人高馬大，許多脊柱手術根本不能用微創技術。所以在德國，微創技術只停留在基層醫院和專科醫院，德國的大學附屬醫院只做高難度的脊柱手術。對于未來科室的發展，你必須發展脊柱側彎和畸形技術以及脊柱腫瘤技術，從現在起，刻不容緩。你可以先選兩個優秀醫生先學習這兩項技術，再通過開設專科門診，把病人吸引過來。你們也可以與專科聯盟和腫瘤醫院合作，把腫瘤轉移到脊柱部位的脊柱腫瘤病人轉到你們科室。一個科室要開展一項新技術至少需要5年的時間，你現在就應該馬上布局，未來什么樣的脊柱病人來你們科室你們都能搞定，這才是真正意義上的脊柱中心，這樣的脊柱中心才能所向無敵了。科室的江湖地位就更穩固了。科室在全中國的影響力就更大了。

In May, I got up early in the morning and had a phone call with Director Zhou Honggang of Henan Third People's Hospital. I said to him, "Your Intervertebral Disc Center has been listed as one of the national key specialties”. In China, the level of minimally invasive technique of your center is the top among all the other hospitals. However in Germany, an authentic spine center requires techniques of minimally invasive surgery and treating scoliosis and spinal tumor at the same time. Minimally invasive technique is the basic standard, whereas deformity technique represents the strength, and spinal tumor technique stands for high precision and professional skills of a spine center. Almost every hospital can carry out minimally invasive spine surgeries because it is not very difficult to be put in practice. Therefore, there is no buffer zone for minimally invasive technique in China, and many hospitals may probably encounter bottlenecks in their development process. From family doctors to specialized hospitals to university hospitals, this three-tier system composes German medical care system. The ability to handle difficult and complicated spinal diseases is the demonstration of a spine center’s high expertise. However, major spinal surgery is impossible to be treated with merely the minimally invasive technique, you have to build your own solid advantages. Since German people are mostly large in size, many spine surgeries cannot be performed with minimally invasive technique only. Therefore, in Germany, primary hospitals and specialized hospitals carry out most of the minimally invasive surgeries, while the university hospitals mainly perform highly difficult open surgeries. For the future development of a spine center, the techniques treating scoliosis, deformity and spinal tumor must be developed better and better. You can start from sending some excellent doctors for further education in these fields, and then bring patients in by setting up specialized outpatient clinic. Also, you can cooperate with the specialized hospital alliance and oncology hospitals, and receive patients with spinal tumors from them. Generally, it takes at least 5 years for a department to fully carry out a new technique. You’d better immediately set the layout now, and then you can handle patients with various spinal diseases in the future. An authentic spine center like that is truly invincible. In this way, your department will possess a stronger reputation, and a greater influence throughout China.