Bin Cao—a leader in respiratory medicine

When Bin Cao was called by the Chinese Ministry of Health in January 2020 to travel from Beijing to Wuhan to assist with patients severely ill with acute respiratory infection, he was not fazed. It was not the first time he had received such a request. He recalls many similar occasions, including going to Jinan and Tibet in 2009 to look after patients infected with influenza A H1N1 and travelling to Shanghai and Nanjing in 2013 to care for patients with avian influenza H7N9. "I cannot remember how many times I was called to other cities to take care of the severely ill patients, not only me, but many doctors from teaching hospitals because we have the training and skills to provide help to local physicians", says Cao who is Vice President and Director of the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China, and Vice Director of China's National Center for Respiratory Medicine.