On Aug. 19, 2007 from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. at Four Points by Sheraton Minneapolis - Minnesota Grand Ballroom, the Association of Minnesota Chinese Physicians (AMCP) held its 2nd Medical Forum. Keynote Speaker Dr. Hongsheng Guo spoke on "Atrial Fibrillation: Is rhythm control (or a cure) possible?"

Dr. Hongsheng Guo graduated from Tongji Medical University in Wuhan, China in 1981. He finished his Internal Medicine Residency at University of South Dakota Medical School in 2001 and then went on to finish his Cardiology fellowship and electrophysiology training at University of Iowa in 2005. He has also been active in research and has published many peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters during　his years at Harvard University, Northwestern University, Loyola University and the University of Iowa.　He is　an invited reviewer for the Journal of Heart Rhythm (the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society).

Dr. Guo currently is a practicing cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiology specialist at Park Nicollet. He has special expertise in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias both medically and through electrophysiological intervention.

This Medical Forum was sponsored by Association of Minnesota Chinese Physicians and Medtronic Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management Division. AMCP President John Chen presided this meeting. Even with the bad weather and traffic due to I-35 bridge collapse, there were around 20 people in attendance, including AMCP members, some special guests from some medical device companies and China Insight.

AMCP is a non-profit organization of mostly Chinese Minnesotan physicians with a shared commitment to community service, professional development and promotion of collaborations in order to advance medical sciences, technology and patient care. It also facilitates the exchange and interaction of medical professionals between the United States (Minnesota in particular) and China. AMCP welcomes all physicians, Chinese and non-Chinese, Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, mid-level providers and physicians in training, to join in promoting the AMCP mission. Since its inauguration on Jan. 10, 2004, AMCP has grown in membership. As of today, they have almost 70 members including 13 lifetime members.

AMCP has established a volunteer clinic, the Minnesota Chinese Health Center (MCHC), and many of its members volunteer in the clinic. The clinic serves not only ethnic Chinese patients but also the local population at large. It has had well over 500 patient visits since opening in October 2004. The patient population included mostly Chinese but also non-Chinese Americans, Southeast Asians, Asian Indians, Japanese and Russians.

AMCP has held and will continue to hold periodic public health education seminars to promote healthy life-style and disease prevention as well as early recognition of warning signs and symptoms of diseases that should lead to medical attention.

AMCP has successfully held 4 professional seminars in the past few years on a nonscheduled basis. Starting from 2007, the professional seminars have been expanded to become quarterly Medical Forums. The Medical Forums will serve as the platform not only to promote intellectual interaction and professional development of AMCP members but also to facilitate collaboration between AMCP members and the Twin Cities community including government agencies, other health and professional organizations, medical device manufacturers and biomedical companies. AMCP’s 1st Medical Forum with Dr. Kenneth Liao as keynote speaker was a great success.

AMCP led the first Midwest Medical Delegation to China in October 2006 and hosted a medical delegation from Zhejiang University Medical School and Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital from Hangzhou, China in April 2007. It will continue to promote the interaction and collaboration of medical professionals between the United States (Minnesota in particular) and China.