<International Circulation>: The pulmonary vascular sessions at this meeting have proven to be very popular with standing room only across most of the sessions. What has been occupying your time here in China and keeping you busy?

    Prof Wilkins: About four years ago， some colleagues and I formed a new venture called the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute (PVRI)， which is a virtual organization， a network of experts across the world united with a common mission of understanding pulmonary vascular disease in all its presentations. Over the past four years we have been working together exploring the epidemiology of pulmonary vascular disease in different countries and sharing our understanding of best practice. In China， we have collaborations in place with ChaoYang and Fu-Wai Hospitals and these collaborations are proving very fruitful. The patients who present with pulmonary hypertension here are significant in number and not all of them have access to modern day medicines. One would， of course， like to understand why that is and increase the therapeutic opportunities for these patients. But it is also an opportunity to study the disease in the naïve untreated state in a very ethical manner. We are looking at and discussing collaborative research that might enable us to study the disease as it presents and learn more about what the underlying causes might be. I have taken this opportunity to visit Fu-Wai and ChaoYang and continue those very fruitful discussions.