Xuanwu Hospital of the Capital University of Medical Sciences, China and the International Neuroscience Institute of Hannover, Germany (INI-Hannover) entered into cooperative agreement in 2004 to establish International Neuroscience Institute of China (China-INI). To prepare for the great project, Professor Majid Samii, a man of vision, decided to set up a training center of skull base surgery in Xuanwu Hospital , the first of its kind at world top level in China with himself and Prof. Ling Feng as co-directors. The Center will invite leading experts and professors in skull base surgery both from China and abroad to do the teaching and tutoring. Prof. Samii will take upon himself the mission of drawing up the training program and put his name of authority on each of the diploma certificated. In putting Prof. Samii's idea and spirit into practice, the Center will carry out skull base microsurgical skills training in strict accordance with the international training standard of skull base microsurgery so that to realize Samii's vision in China.

    Standing at the entrance of the Training Center is a solid marble tab let serving as the corner stone of skull base surgery's development in China . T he hand prints of Prof. Samii in front of the tablet indicate that only by tedious and patient anatomy training can one achieve the perfect skull base microsurgical skills. A good neurosurgeon will not only use the heart but also the brain in doing operations so that he or she can attain better results and bring to more patients the hope of returning to normal life. Prof. Samii's masterpiece Skull Base of Microsurgery introduces the anatomy of skull base, surgical approach and microsurgery skills in great detail and an easy-to-understand fashion. This book will be translated into Chinese and published by the Center as a small contribution to skull base surgery in China .

    Samii Skull Base Surgery Training Center was officially launched in October 2004. It is equipped with sophisticated instruments of microneurosurgery specialized for anatomical training. The Zeiss Company donated 6 advanced microscopes. It also purchased microsurgery instrument s from German Asculap and composed special teaching materials of skull base microsurgery thus providing excellent conditions to the trainees. The Center prepare d a large number of skulls and adopts hands-on teaching method. Trainees can practice routine clinical skull base surgical approach and microsurgery operational skills at the center. Prof. Ling Feng will personally guide them in clinical teaching ward-rounds and professional English language training, lecture on normal anatomy and inter-operative pathology, operating approach and surgical key points during case studies. Trainees can also have real-time observation of microneurosurgery procedures performed by Prof. Samii and Prof. Ling Feng. Through this comprehensive training course, the physicians can have the new concept of minima lly invasive neurosurgery.