System Came When the Doctor was Thirty

”Let me ask you a question. Although I’m also in the medical field and probably shouldn’t ask this, I’m still curious.”

”There’s a saying that even a dog wouldn’t go into emergency and pediatrics, so why are you diving into it?” Mu Nanshu asked as they were about to exit the highway.

Seeing Lu Cheng’s somewhat pensive expression, Mu Nanshu added, ”I’m just curious because if it weren’t for the emergency department, your shifts wouldn’t be so packed.”

The pay and workload in the emergency department are the least proportional, and the medical disputes in pediatrics are quite intense. They’re two departments that are hard to recruit for.

Lu Cheng replied, ”The truth is, I’m too lazy to slog in a specialty. Specialty departments are relatively hierarchized.”

”Whether it’s at Long County People’s Hospital where I used to work or at State People’s Hospital where I am now, it’s the same.”

”Even if you can perform the same surgery as an associate professor, you have to write the lead surgeon first before you can actually lead, otherwise it’s all in vain.”

”In the emergency department, there are more opportunities.”

Mu Nanshu said, ”But specialty departments are relatively easier, and the pressure isn’t as high.”

”Yes!~”

Lu Cheng continued, ”But now, in our industry, your fifties are still your prime years for fighting, and we’re only in our thirties, haven’t even started yet, how dare we seek ease?”

”In the emergency department, I can encounter a wider variety of cases, which helps me find a field I’m suited to and interested in.”

Mu Nanshu didn’t find many flaws in Lu Cheng’s answer: ”So what are your plans for the future? Are you planning to stay in the emergency department forever?”

Lu Cheng replied, ”Didn’t you say that at Union Hospital, there’s a trend of separating the emergency department from specialties? By then, a trauma center will be established.”

”Surgeries related to emergencies will be handled in the trauma center, scheduled cases will go to specialties, and they’ll operate independently.”

”Isn’t that great!”

Mu Nanshu smiled and said, ”Seems like you have a plan, indeed, establishing trauma centers is a trend.”

”Lu Cheng, I would actually suggest you to develop in this direction as well.”

”Currently, the overall development of medicine is approaching a bottleneck. What does a bottleneck mean?”

”It means that for scheduled cases, whether it’s tumors or others, the treatment development has relatively stalled, it’s hard to make breakthroughs.”

”So, during this period, the focus of medical development has instead returned to its roots, we’ll also increasingly focus on the research and development of treating emergency cases, to further reduce overall mortality rates.”

”It’s the most direct.”

”Currently, in almost all hospitals, the departments with the highest mortality rates are the ICU, respiratory, cardiology, and the emergency department.”

”Not oncology, nor specialties.”

ICU is full of critical cases, respiratory and cardiology often deal with the elderly, while the emergency department handles dangerous cases like trauma from accidents, aortic dissection, etc.

With the stagnation of specialty case development, for a top teaching hospital to stand out, the focus has to shift towards emergency cases. This is a path that must be fought for over a decade or even several decades.”

”I’ve also seen the news, more and more hospitals are developing trauma centers, I think in the coming years, the domestic medical system will align more with foreign systems.”

”In foreign countries, the emergency department is an integrated unit for patient admission and treatment, unlike the ’advanced referral’ model of domestic emergency departments. More and more specialty technicians will converge towards the emergency department.”

”But who knows how long that will take.”

Lu Cheng reached this point and said, ”By the way, take a look at the group chat, someone just sent a lot of messages. See what they’re talking about?”

Mu Nanshu took out his phone and browsed through the group chat messages carefully.

During the year-end period, the research group discussion chat is relatively quiet, with just some greetings exchanged.

It’s only the second day of the new year and work hasn’t started yet, so if others are talking about something, Lu Cheng and Mu Nanshu should probably join in too.

After reading for a while, Mu Nanshu suddenly looked up, slightly surprised: ”Lu Cheng, the message is from Dai Linfang, he said he can get eight million in funding, and asked if we want to use it.”

”Huh? What did you say?” Lu Cheng was so surprised that he immediately turned on the right turn signal and switched from the fast lane to the slow lane, gradually reducing the speed to eighty.

”Dai Linfang said there’s currently eight million in research funding available, and asked if we want to take it,” Mu Nanshu repeated.

”What’s the deal with this Dai Linfang, anyway?” Mu Nanshu didn’t know much about Dai Linfang.

Her knowledge of Dai Linfang was partly from Lu Cheng’s accounts and partly from Xie Yuan’an’s ”gossip”!

”Actually, I don’t know him well either, but from the last time we had dinner, you could see he’s a top-tier second generation.”

”The only thing I still don’t get is why he came to the oncology department of State People’s Hospital.”

”During his postgraduate studies, he squandered tens of millions in funding.” Lu Cheng’s tone was a bit restrained.

Ten million?

Even the big professors and large teams at Union Hospital don’t have many with this level of funding.

Dai Linfang managed to burn through such a huge amount alone.

And Lu Cheng’s team, with all their funding combined, only had a bit more than three million.

”Ask him where this money is coming from. We can’t just take random funding,” Lu Cheng quickly said.

”Let’s talk about it later. You’re driving now; it’s not safe.”

”Anyway, we’re getting off the highway soon. Let’s get something to eat first, discuss after we park...” Mu Nanshu suggested.

”Alright,” Lu Cheng nodded.

...

Once Lu Cheng and Mu Nanshu parked, they walked straight into Xinji Big Hot Pot, and Mu Nanshu went to pick the dishes.