Founded in 1950, neurology in Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University (former Shanghai Medical University) is one of the first medical disciplines established in China. Its founder, Professor Zhang Ruzhang, set up neurology wards in Huashan Hospital and Zhongshan Hospital respectively, after studying neurology in Britain. In 1952, the Department of Neurology of Zhongshan Hospital was merged into that of Huashan Hospital due to the department adjustment. In September, 1992, it was reestablished, with Professor Zhu Wenbing being the first director. In 2000, professor Wang Xin succeeded as the next director, who is a doctoral supervisor, member of the Chinese Society of Neurology, member of the Chinese Society of Cerebral Electrophysiology, director of the Neurology Committee of Shanghai Medical Association and NeuroRehabilitation Committee of Shanghai Association of Rehabilitation Medic, council member of the China Association Against Epilepsy and the Shanghai Society for Neuroscience, and secretary of the party committee of Zhongshan Hospital, as well as an editorial board member of Chinese Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Chinese Journal of Clinical Neurosciences and etc. He has been doing clinical work and basic research for a long time and has undertaken a great number of research subjects supported by the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Five-year Plans, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality.

This department has set up different specialties and is equipped with advanced technologies.  It is one of the national key clinical disciplines and base hospital for stroke screening and prevention. There are four specialties (epilepsy & sleep disorder, cerebrovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, neuromuscular diseases), and six special outpatient services (epilepsy clinic, cerebrovascular diseases clinic, Parkinsonism clinic, neuromuscular diseases clinic, memory disorders clinic, sleep disorders clinic), with EMG & EEG rooms. About 100,000 outpatients and 1700 inpatients are received each year. They strive to provide high-quality medical services for all patients.

Doctors in this department have rich experience in the diagnosis and treatment of common neurological diseases like epilepsy, cerebrovascular diseases, Parkinsonism, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular diseases, myasthenia gravis, limbic encephalitis, motor neuron disease, headache, and neurosis. They master solidly the basic knowledge and skills of clinical treatment and they are especially good at dealing with intractable diseases and severe diseases. 

This department undertakes a lot of teaching tasks every year. As the Doctor and Master degrees conferring unit of Medical School of Fudan University, the faculty are responsible for teaching undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates and 8-year program students as well as refresher doctors. And this department is one of the standardization training bases for resident doctors and neurology specialty training bases in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, it attaches great importance to scientific researches, covering the main domains of neurological diseases. For example, faculty members have participated in the national project on cerebrovascular diseases and rehabilitation for 15 consecutive years, and have done a lot of work in promotion of standardized treatment and rehabilitation on cerebral infarction at the acute stage and second-level prevention. In recent 5 years, this department has undertaken 31 research projects, including 7 national projects, 4 provincial projects, 15 municipal projects and 5 institution-level projects, with the total research funds reaching 21.1 million yuan.