Second Opinion
Remote Consultation
Single or multi-disciplinary clinical guidance from the world's leading specialists in 3-7 business days.
Global Medical Gateway
The Best Care, Wherever It Lives.
A rare diagnosis can hinge on a single subspecialist — the one whose practice has focused on that exact condition for years. International Medical Services helps patients reach them, whether the right care is in our Greater China network or at an academic centre abroad. We coordinate the full journey: case preparation, travel, treatment, and the continuity of care on return.
Two Directions
Care That Crosses Borders, Both Ways.
Inbound
When patients come to us in China.
Patients arrive from over 170 countries to access the United Family Healthcare network — international-standard hospitals, fully bilingual clinicians, seven Centers of Excellence. For nearly thirty years, the first call international patients make in China.
230k+
Annual international patient visits
Outbound
When the answer is abroad.
For rare diagnoses where the leading expertise lives at an academic medical centre abroad, we coordinate the full journey — case preparation, travel, treatment, and the follow-up appointment back home where the records arrived first.
50+
Global partner hubs
By the numbers
The Largest Private International Patient Practice in China.
Nearly three decades of serving the international community across China. Beijing United Family Hospital opened in 1997 as the first Sino-foreign joint-venture medical institution in mainland China; the network now spans Beijing-Tianjin, Shanghai, and the Greater Bay Area.
1997
Established in Beijing
800+
Full-time Bilingual Physicians
230k+
Annual International Patient Visits
173
Patient Countries
100%
Physicians with Overseas Experience
Embassies & Consulates
Care for the World's Diplomatic Community.
Over 200 embassies and consulates partner with United Family for the medical care of their staff, families, and nationals across China. The countries below represent a sample of the missions we serve on a continuous basis.
United States
United Kingdom
Canada
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
Belgium
Switzerland
Austria
Portugal
Ireland
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Poland
Czech Republic
Greece
Turkey
Russia
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Japan
South Korea
Singapore
Malaysia
Philippines
Vietnam
India
Bangladesh
Bhutan
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia
Israel
Egypt
Morocco
South Africa
Angola
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Mexico
Cuba
Australia
European Union
United States
United Kingdom
Canada
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
Belgium
Switzerland
Austria
Portugal
Ireland
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Poland
Czech Republic
Greece
Turkey
Russia
Belarus
Kazakhstan
Japan
South Korea
Singapore
Malaysia
Philippines
Vietnam
India
Bangladesh
Bhutan
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia
Israel
Egypt
Morocco
South Africa
Angola
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Mexico
Cuba
Australia
European Union
Clinical Spotlight
Some of the Experts
Who Practice Here.
Most also teach at medical schools in China; many trained abroad before returning. Their work appears in the journals their colleagues read and on the committees that shape their fields. Some of their patients travel a long way to find them.
Urology
Zhu Gang
- Chief Physician; Chair of Urology and Chair of Surgery at UFH Beijing
- Robotic-assisted surgery for prostate, kidney, and bladder cancers; advanced retroperitoneal lymph node dissection; vascular-adjacent tumor surgery
Oncology
Gu Yanfei
- Chief Physician
- Comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, thoracic tumors, and solid tumors
Gastroenterology
Gong Biao (King Gong)
- Deputy General Manager, Chief Physician; Deputy General Manager of UFH Shanghai and Chief Physician of the Gastroenterology Center
- Endoscopic management of complex pancreaticobiliary diseases including pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, biliary and pancreatic stones, obstructive jaundice, and pediatric ERCP; expertise in gastroscopy, colonoscopy, EUS, and pancreaticobiliary endoscope; pioneered a one-stop diagnostic and therapeutic platform for digestive endoscopy
Surgery
He Jianxing
- Dean, Chief Physician; Director of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine and Dean of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health
- Minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer; complex thoracic surgery; heart-lung transplantation; innovative contributions to ex vivo lung perfusion techniques; thoracoscopic lung cancer resection; tubeless spontaneous breathing airway surgery; needle thoracoscopy
Oncology
Jia Lin
- Chief Physician
- Comprehensive medical oncology for solid tumors; focusing on targeted therapy, tumor immunotherapy, and tumor microenvironment research (inferred from committee appointments in clinical tumor drug research and targeted therapy, as well as postdoctoral training in tumor immunology)
Surgery
Li Shunrong
- Chief Physician; Administrative Director of the Department of Oncoplastic Surgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital Shenshan Center
- Breast reconstruction; scarless tumor resection; aesthetic breast surgery
Innovation
The Same Equipment.
The Same Outcomes.
A Fraction of the Cost.
The technologies below are what a clinician needs to deliver care an academic medical centre would recognise — earlier diagnoses, less invasive surgery, faster recovery. Treatment with any of them in China costs a fraction of what it would in the United States, Europe, or Australasia. For a patient willing to travel, the same care is within reach.
1st in Private China
Ion Endoluminal System
Intuitive Surgical's robotic bronchoscopy platform — the earliest peripheral lung-nodule biopsy capability available in private healthcare in China. Reaches nodules previous-generation systems could not, with millimetre precision and a faster path from imaging to diagnosis. Used for the small lung lesions easiest to miss on a scan and hardest to biopsy by hand.
1st in Private China
Da Vinci Robotic Surgery
Surpassed 1,000 Da Vinci surgeries at Beijing United Family — a national milestone for private healthcare in China. Robotic-assisted procedures now run across urology, thoracic, and general surgery, with shorter operating times and smaller incisions than the open or laparoscopic alternatives. Multidisciplinary case planning before every procedure.
1st in Northern and Southern China
MAKO Orthopedic Robot
Robotic-arm assisted total hip, total knee, and partial knee resurfacing — installed in Beijing and Guangzhou, the first MAKO deployments in northern and southern China. Preoperative CT planning, intraoperative tracking, and surgeon-controlled bone preparation deliver implant alignment within a millimetre of plan, with less collateral bone loss than freehand surgery.
Faster Access, Lower Cost
CAR-T Programme
Cell therapy at a price and a pace that doesn't exist in most countries. Slot wait times of 2–4 weeks versus 3–6 months in the U.S., at roughly one-third the all-in cycle cost. Six CFDA-approved CAR-T constructs available domestically, with hematologists trained at PKU People's Hospital and PLA 305.
End-to-end Support
The Care Around the Care.
A patient who travels for care brings their language, their customs, and a daily routine — all of which now has to function in a city that isn't as familiar. The clinical encounter is only part of what we manage. The rest is everything around it: getting fed, getting around, being understood, having traditions respected. We hold that work to the same standard as the surgery.
We accommodate prayer, fasting, and modesty preferences, request gender-preferred staff where appropriate, and follow halal, Hindu, and Buddhist dietary laws.
When the answer isn't local
For the Cases That Don't Have an Answer in China.
The rarest and most complex cases often require expertise that exists in only one or two centres in the world. A rare pediatric cancer, a congenital cardiac repair, or an opinion that changes the entire treatment plan can all fall into this category. For those, we run an AI-assisted global search across academic medical centres in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Hong Kong. The result is the subspecialist whose practice has focused on that exact condition for years. A clinical case team takes over from there.
Direct institutional partnerships
Working relationships — not referrals — with academic centres in the US, Japan, and Hong Kong.
Case preparation that earns the slot
Cases prepared to international academic standards before submission — improving acceptance rates and shortening lead times.
Continuum of care upon return
Treatment doesn't end at the airport. We coordinate the home transition with the relevant team — oncology, rehab, home care.
Speed and Reach
When Time is of the Essence.
In complex cases, speed often matters as much as the answer — an aggressive cancer, a narrow surgical window, a treatment that can't wait through a holiday. Below is the pace we work at.
3 Days
Remote Opinion Timeline
7 Days
Overseas Care Initiation
50+
Global Partner Hubs
Partner Institutions
The Institutions
We Work With.
The centres below are leading academic medical institutions in their fields. Our relationship with each is direct. With Mayo Clinic and City of Hope, it is closer: we operate Mayo's international office in Shanghai, and City of Hope's in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
United States
- Mayo Clinic
- City of Hope
- MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
- Cleveland Clinic
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- University of Rochester Medical Center
Japan
- National Cancer Center
- University of Tokyo Hospital
- Keio University Hospital
Hong Kong
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Medicine
- The University of Hong Kong, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine
- Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital
- HKIOC(Central)
- HEAL Oncology(Central)
- HKIOC (Tsim Sha Tsui)
- HEAL Medical(Central)
- HEAL Medical(Tsim Sha Tsui)
- Heal Fertility & Women's Health
Core Outbound Services
Reasons Why Patients Come to Us.
These six services are what we offer when a patient travels abroad for care. Some need only one. Others use all six — from case preparation through the follow-up that closes the loop at home.
Overseas Support
Travel & Logistics
End-to-end assistance for journeys to the US, Japan, and Hong Kong. Visas, flights, on-site translation.
Innovative Therapeutics
Drug Sourcing
Access to the latest clinical trial protocols and innovative therapeutics from across the global frontier.
Precision Diagnostics
Health Screening
Advanced imaging and expert interpretation in international tertiary centres.
Membership
Global Health Plan
1-on-1 health management with dedicated consultants and priority green-channel access.
Continuum Management
Coordinated Follow-up
Bringing overseas outcomes back into the United Family network — full clinical handover, no gap in records.
Cases
Stories from the Casework.
Each case began with a question local care couldn't answer alone. Five real ones — rare disease, multi-mutation oncology, chemotherapy under time pressure.
Story 01
Beijing → Hong Kong
A Double-Mutation Case
A 65-year-old with stage IVB lung adenocarcinoma carried both a HER2 Exon20 insertion and a TP53 mutation — a combination that made treatment sequencing nearly impossible locally. A remote consultation with Professor Tony Mok produced a multi-line plan; her local team managed bone-metastasis pain in parallel.
01/05
The Journey
Five Stages, One Case Team.
A typical engagement, from first inquiry to long-term follow-up.
- 01
Initial case consultation
Our team reviews records and identifies which international centres fit the diagnosis. We're transparent about whether traveling is the right move — and when it isn't.
- 02
Case preparation and submission
Records translated, imaging converted to international standards, case prepared to the receiving institution's specifications, submitted with our clinical commentary.
- 03
Second opinion and treatment planning
We receive the response, translate it for the family, and coordinate any clarifying conversations with the receiving clinicians.
- 04
Travel and on-site coordination
We handle every logistics layer — visa, lodging, on-site clinical liaison, language — so the patient can focus on their care.
- 05
Return and continuum
We transition the patient back into our network with full clinical handover. Long-term follow-up coordinated between the foreign centre and our local team.
From Leadership
For some patients, the best care is on the other side of the world. For others, it's already here. Our work is to make the world smaller — bringing patients to the care, and the care to patients.
Ed Tam
Chief Executive Officer, International Medical Services
Some Questions Are Bigger than Any Single Hospital.
Whether you're an international patient coming into the network, or navigating a complex diagnosis abroad, our case team can help.