Alongside the True Masters

Last night, I spent two hours in two back-to-back research meetings with YANG Jie, who is currently pursuing his MD degree at the University Medical Center Göttingen. YANG Jie is one of the doctoral students of Prof. Lehmann, Chair of Trauma surgery, Orthopedics and Plastic Surgery at the University Medical Center Göttingen. He arrived in Göttingen in September 2023 and successfully obtained the prestigious CSC Scholarship. During the two-hour meeting yesterday, I found him extremely confident and articulate, and completely different from the person I met back in 2022. After two years of intensive training, both his research and English skills have improved tremendously. He told us that Prof. Lehmann is the best mentor in the world, and becoming his student is the most fortunate and correct decision of his life.

Born into a medical and philanthropic family, Prof. Lehmann grew up with strong academic traditions. Both his parents and grandfather were physicians, and he himself eventually became a professor in medicine. When his first Chinese student Dr. Li arrived in 2022, Prof. Lehmann immediately equipped him with computers and software worth tens of thousands of euros, telling him the funding is not what he should worry about - focus on research. After getting his doctoral degree from Göttingen, Dr. Li returned to Guangzhou and secured an excellent position. Over the past three years, Prof. Lehmann has accepted five Chinese MD students, all funded by CSC. The second student, Dr. Zhou, completed his MD studies in just two years and is now the deputy director at his home hospital. Their lab has abundant resources available and any experiment they wish to conduct can be supported. The working environment is excellent: weekly group meetings, weekly one-on-one meetings with the lab director, and monthly meetings with Prof. Lehmann. He pays out of pocket every year to invite his MD students and Chinese fellows to dinners during important holidays. He also takes all Chinese fellows to the DKOU, the largest orthopedics and trauma congress in Europe every year.

I also told them that Prof. Lehmann once served as the Deputy Chair of Orthopedics at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. Nine years ago, he was invited the Chair at Göttingenl. After nearly a decade of hard work, he transformed it into one of the World’s Best Specialized Orthopedics Hospitals ranked by Newsweek.

When YANG Jie visits other departments, many directors, upon learning he is Prof. Lehmann’s student, ask him to convey greetings. As a result, he now has strong connections across the entire hospital. He also shared the story of an outstanding doctor from Wuhan who joined research group in cardiology in Göttingen. Due to weak institutional support, his registration and administrative arrangements were difficult, he mainly did labor work for the team, and eventually fell into depression. After two years in Göttingen, YANG Jie now deeply understands how essential a strong and influential supervisor is.

Prof. Lehmann’s students often defend their theses within three months of submission, whereas many other Chinese students must wait a year or even longer. The department of Trauma surgery, Orthopedics and Plastic Surgery is one of the largest and most influential clinical departments at the University Medical Center Göttingen. Prof. Lehmann will serve as the Vice President of DKOU 2027 and President of the German Society for Trauma Surgery in 2027.

I still remember the first time Prof. Lehmann came to China in 2019 - I invited him to join the SEOS global livestream, and he also spent a week working at Guangzhou First People’s Hospital. Last year, I again invited him for a week-long visiting professorship at Zhengzhou Orthopedic Hospital. Focusing on trauma and as a certified spine master of the German Spine Society, two of his MD students specialize in spine and two in trauma. In pelvic surgery, he is the top expert in Germany and one of the leading figures in Europe, organizing the annual European Pelvic Course. Most importantly, despite his distinguished background, he treats everyone with humility, equality, and genuine respect. This year, he served as the Chair of SEOS 2025 organized by Gloryren. During the reception dinner of the opening ceremony, he discussed YANG Jie’s career path with Director Zhu from Dongguan People’s Hospital.

In late 2018, before Christmas, I met Dr. Stinus, former President of the German Society for Foot and Ankle Surgery, at the University Medical Center Göttingen. He told me that I must meet his chief, Prof. Lehmann. Within eight years, he will become the best orthopedic and trauma surgeon in Germany. The next day, I met Prof. Lehmann, listened to their morning conference and had an internal discussion with him, inviting him to China as a visiting professor, to host clinical fellows, and to supervise Chinese doctoral students. He agreed immediately.

In May 2017, Prof. Wang Yan invited Prof. Mayer, the world-renowned master in minimally invasive spine surgery to attend the Anuual Congress of Chinese Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (CAOS) in Hangzhou. I approved the invitation and arranged first-class flights carried by Lufthansa, accommodation at five-star hotels, commuting via Mercedes, a videographer, and a translator. I accompanied him with our senior management team. Prof. Mayer only attended the congress of CAOS once - German top experts generally prefer our boutique academic events, which truly solve structural and strategic problems for Chinese hospitals, and everyone enjoys the collaboration.

SEOS 2025 was a tremendous success: the article posted on WeChat received 22,000 views, and the bilingual global livestream reached 393,000 views from 19 countries.