Introduction
The Respiratory Department of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University is developed from the Pulmonary Department established in the 1930s by Prof. Wu Shaoqing, a famous pulmonologist and one of the founders of the anti-tuberculosis cause in China. This department is one of the Shanghai municipal key medical disciplines, Shanghai municipal key disciplines, Ministry of Health key discipline projects and Shanghai municipal top-priority discipline construction projects. It is also the attached institution of Shanghai Respiratory Research Center and is in charge of Shanghai Respiratory Medicine Clinical Quality Control Center and Shanghai Nosocomial Infection Quality Control Center.
The Respiratory Department is abundant with experts and has already formed a team of experienced, skillful, aspirant and cooperative doctors with strong enterprising spirit. Under the leadership of Pro. Zhu Lei, this department serves patients under the guidance of the philosophy of “keeping in line with international development, having the vision of the world, serving the patients and benefiting the society”. Now this department has 12 professors, 10 associate professors and a number of chief physicians, resident physicians and technicians.
Clinical Features
In recent years, this department, on the basis of its existing advantages, has taken into consideration of the change of disease spectra and the clinical requirements of respiratory departments in our country, forming the following four working emphases and features.
1. Severe respiratory diseases
In the late 1950s, this department was the first to offer respiratory failure diagnosis and treatment, and established the first respiratory care unit in China. The department undertakes National Key Projects, NSFC projects (including major projects and key projects), provincial projects and so on, and has adopted extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), blood purification technology. Eminent achievements have been made in noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, protective mechanical ventilation, cardiopulmonary function supervision, alveolar fluid transfer and pulmonary edema therapy, and the prevention and control of ventilator-associated pneumonia. With the development of new-type ventilation masks and rescue technologies, the department has expanded the indications of noninvasive mechanical ventilation and greatly improved patients’ prognosis.
2. Chronic airway diseases
The synchronous development of pulmonary function room and respiratory care unit in this department takes the leading position in China, and they have established a series of “Zhongshan Standards”. The department offers outpatient services for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and respiratory allergies. A respiratory therapy room has been set up for pulmonary ventilation and exchange function test, airway provocation test, serum specific IgE detection, exhaled nitric oxide test (FeNO), etc.. They have also made great efforts to popularize the standardized and personalized diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. This department first proposed “Telemedicine plus mobile Health” in the world and has developed the latest products like wireless pulmonary function sensor and FeNO tester which are highly regarded by the international medical community.
3. Pulmonary tumor and intervention
They have done some pioneering work in pulmonary cancer screening and early diagnosis, comprehensive treatment, tracheoscopy and thoracoscopy interventional treatment, etc. In 2002, they established the first domestic pulmonary cancer comprehensive clinic, and in 2007 the pulmonary targeted-therapy clinic. In 2014, approved by National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, this department became the training base of Tracheoscopy Level-4 (the highest level) clinical skills. They take part in the national key scientific research projects “Research on Early Diagnosis of Pulmonary Cancer Based on Nanotechnology”and “Research on the Diagnosis Regulation, Standard and Evaluation of Interventional Pulmonary Disease Treatment Technologies”, and joined in a 985 project titled“Research on the Mechanism and Prevention of Pulmonary Cancer Recurrence and Metastasis”. In recent years, this department has dedicated to developing some new technologies for interventional treatment, such as endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), endotracheal stent implantation under bronchoscope, argon plasma coagulation (APC), flapper lung volume reduction surgery viabronchoscopy, thermoforming under bronchoscope, etc.
4. Pulmonary infection
The department takes the lead in clinical treatment and nosocomial infection control of pulmonary infection, clinical and basic research of pulmonary infection in immunosuppression host in China. This department also has a well-equipped microbiology lab which is the associate institute of Shanghai Nosocomial Infection Center. The department is responsible for formulating guidance of clinical management, prevention and control of ventilator-associated pneumonia. The staff has undertaken various projects including National Key Projects, and projects supported by Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Health, and Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology. Other achievements are made in areas of diagnosis and treatment of patients receiving organ transplantation and suffering from immunosuppression, prevention and control of nosocomial infection, special sampling techniques, medical instrument development, microorganism detection, the improvement and application of drug sensitivity techniques, bacterial resistance, the rational application of antibiotics, etc.
Teaching and Research Achievements
This Respiratory Department has undertaken projects of NSFC, National Key Projects, Ministry of Health Fund, Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Fund, 985 and 973 sub-projects. This department also has a series of scientific findings that have won awards on national and municipal levels and obtained patents as well. The department has published over 100 SCI papers in recent 5 years, and wrote and compiled a large amount of textbooks and monographs, among which some have become classics in this area and take the lead in China, esp. books about mechanical ventilation and clinical pulmonary function. It is among the first to conduct doctoral degree programs and establish post-doctoral research stations. The department now has 7 doctoral supervisors and 6 master supervisors; in 2013, it became one of the first standardized training bases for respiratory medicine specialists and was awarded Excellent Clinical Teaching Base by Zhongshan Hospital; every year they recruit and train more than 10 refresher doctors, and have cultivated many outstanding talents in respiratory medicine. By holding international conferences and organizing workshops on mechanical ventilation, pulmonary infection, intervention and pleural disease, they have attracted a large number of doctors at home and abroad, which greatly enhanced its national and international influence.
