I Am Diagnosed as a Medical Titan

”Professor… Professor?”

Jiang He called out softly.

Only then did Yang Xu snap back to reality.

In that brief moment, his thoughts had drifted from the office in Affiliated Hospital No. 1 to an assembly hall in the Capital City… He’d even fast-forwarded from the selection of new academicians for the Academy of Engineering all the way to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm…

It wasn’t until Jiang He’s voice pulled him back to reality that he realized he had lost his composure.

”Ahem, hmm…”

Yang Xu solemnly flipped through the papers in his hand.

”I was just thinking, you see. This paper of yours, while its logic is sound, is ultimately a subversive piece of work. I need to review its clinical feasibility.”

Jiang He nodded. ”Understood. Thank you for the trouble, Professor.”

Yang Xu coughed again and said, ”I see here that you have data not only from our hospital but also from Peking Union Medical College Hospital?”

”Yes. Director Xu agreed to send me a package of the anonymized raw data. Combining the data from both sides will make it much more valuable. So, I was planning to call Director Xu later and ask him to be the co-corresponding author for this paper.”

”Right. That’s exactly what you should do.”

Yang Xu said, ”For a top-tier journal like the New England Journal of Medicine, the rejection rate is over 95% every year. When it comes to our domestic clinical research, due to some non-standard practices from earlier years… the reviewers over there are naturally biased against us.”

”If this paper only contains data from our Southern Medical University, no matter how astonishing the results, they might just reject it with the excuse ’single-center study, lacks generalizability.’ But if you add Director Xu’s name from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, it becomes a multi-center validation. That will greatly increase the chances of our manuscript passing the initial review.”

Jiang He was, of course, well aware of these unwritten rules.

In the world of medical academia, especially at this point in 2008, the country’s voice and influence were still quite weak.

Publishing a paper is, in essence, a scientific endeavor.

But the submission process is a matter of sociology.

As long as he was secured as the first author and owned the core results, having a few big names as corresponding authors was nothing but beneficial for him.

This wouldn’t dilute his paper’s prestige; on the contrary, it was a way of leveraging their influence.

Seeing Yang Xu’s ”I’m very pleased” expression...

Jiang He couldn’t help but think back to his previous life.

In his past life, when he first joined Boss Yang’s team, he was still just a kid.

Back then, there was a postdoctoral researcher in the group named Cai Zhuoqun. He was brilliant and had written a paper for a top-tier journal.

At the time, Jiang He had a heavy course load and hadn’t gotten the hang of his lab work yet, so Boss Yang had him go and assist Cai Zhuoqun.

It was really just some simple work.

Running data comparisons, correcting grammatical errors throughout the paper, that sort of thing… a bit like what Chen Hao and the others were doing now.

Then, during the final report, Cai Zhuoqun wrote Jiang He’s name as the fourth author on the list.

Back then, Cai Zhuoqun had patted him on the shoulder and said, ”You’ve worked hard recently, man.”

Jiang He was incredibly flattered. ”This work… you don’t have to give me credit for this, do you?”

Cai Zhuoqun smiled. ”True, I could have just outsourced it to a polishing editor, but that’s paying an outsider. By giving you authorship credit, it’ll be a great help when you apply for scholarships or awards in the future. This is our team’s tradition, you get me?”

At that moment, Jiang He thought Cai Zhuoqun’s gesture was just… so cool!

So, after being reborn, he continued this practice.

’Never shortchange the brothers who work alongside you.’

Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Jiang He said to Yang Xu, ”Professor, I’ll head back first, then. Finalizing the data will still take a little time. I want to try and send out the final draft before noon on Monday.”

Yang Xu reminded him, ”You also have your thesis defense on Monday. Don’t forget about that.”

”I know.”

After leaving the hospital, Jiang He went straight back to his dorm.

He sent the first draft of the paper to Xu Wenpei.

Just over ten minutes later, the phone rang.

Xu Wenpei: ”Jiang He, this paper… is this data for real?”

”Director Xu, it is. Do you see any problems with it?”

”No problems… It’s because it’s so perfect that it’s almost scary in retrospect… The weight distribution for those five indicators is simply divine. How on earth did you think to use two seemingly basic indicators like BUN and pleural effusion as the anchor points for early warning?”

”If you just follow the pathological logic, it’s not that hard to discover,” Jiang He replied modestly.

”Not that hard… you say?”

’Where is it not hard?!’

Xu Wenpei resisted the urge to retort.

Then he said, ”If this paper gets published in the NEJM, this isn’t about impact factor anymore. This is about rewriting the guidelines.”

”That’s why, Director Xu, I plan to list you as a co-corresponding author.”

”This…”

”Director Xu, you provided the core data and gave me a lot of inspiration. Besides, without the endorsement from Peking Union Medical College Hospital, this manuscript would have a hard time getting past international reviewers. We’re helping each other succeed.”

”Helping each other succeed…”

Xu Wenpei repeated the phrase, then let out a long sigh. ”You kid… you’re more magnanimous than us old-timers. Last time, because of that H1N1 report, I passed on a word for Shu Yuelong’s side, and the higher-ups are already re-evaluating my academic contributions from the past few years. If we add this SAP model paper, which could define international standards… next year’s selection for the Academy of Engineering academicians…”

Jiang He’s heart skipped a beat.

In his past life, although Xu Wenpei was also a titan in his field, he had waited a long time for his selection as an academician for various reasons.

This life.

A single paper might just produce two academicians.

”Then I’ll congratulate you in advance on your success, Director Xu,” Jiang He said.

”Don’t be a smart-aleck.” Xu Wenpei’s tone shifted. ”Juanzi told me that things are going very well between you and that girl, Xiaoyu. That’s good. Xiaoyu is a girl with a pure character; she’s a good match for you.”