After a bit of relaxation (Jiuzhaigou national park is spectacular), and a touch of Chinese language immersion (never enough), I have finally started work at my new family medicine clinic at Beijing United Family Hospital. Moving my practice to BJU is a very natural extension for me; in my four years taking care of children and families in Beijing, I have always considered BJU as the go-to place for any serious specialty or surgical consults, and I frequently sent sick patients to their emergency room.

So it was natural for me to join their excellent group of family medicine doctors, but what also sweetened the pot was their offer to give me a dual role as their new national Director of Clinical Marketing and Communications, to help all of their facilities with social media. I started writing this blog almost two years ago to fill a void in the Beijing community for easy to read, evidence-based health information, but I still feel that all the Beijing clinics can do a much better job online, providing their patients as well as the community much-needed advice on health issues.  I hope I can help to satisfy this unmet need.

I hope that my long-term readers understand by now that I’ve worked hard to be very non-partisan and open-minded on this blog, and I absolutely want to continue having this “street cred” in the community. Having said that, I honestly feel that when it comes to regular primary care medicine, Beijing has a handful of clinics with excellent family doctors who can all easily take care of the bread-and-butter routine visits. But when it comes to serious illness, emergencies or surgeries, I continue to believe that BJU is the best choice in Beijing. Let’s put it another way: if I or my wife and loved ones were very sick, there’s only one place I would consider going to: BJU.

Also, many readers may not realize that BJU and their sister hospital in Shanghai have obtained international certification by the highly-esteemed gold-standard Joint Commission International; this is incredibly difficult and expensive to achieve but it ensures that the equipment, level of care and patient safety are absolutely top-notch.

If you want to see me in clinic, please call the main number at 5927.7000 for an appointment. I will have family clinics in their main hospital in Lido as well as at their clinic in Shunyi (Tuesdays and Saturdays) and at the new Liangma clinic, in the Grand Summit building next to the US Embassy (Thursdays). You can find clinic maps and other information at their main website at http://unitedfamilyhospitals.com/en/bj/.