Medical pioneer a cut above the rest

Among the 1,241 model workers in Beijing in 2010, two men stand out because they are expatriates working in the capital.

One of them, Dr Luc Picard, who has visited China 15 times since 1977 to perform operations, lecture and train other doctors, is a key medical expert and a helper extraordinaire.

The 73-year-old Frenchman is a founder of interventional neuroradiology and life honorary president of the World Federation of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology.