Radiology

1. Overview of the Discipline

The Department of Radiology of Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital originated from the X-ray room of the Jiao'ao Governor’s Office Hospital, built by Germany in 1902. Through the arduous pioneering efforts and persistent dedication of several generations, the department has developed into a comprehensive medical imaging center integrating clinical care, teaching, and research. In 1987, the department became one of the first nationally approved master’s degree programs in medical imaging, and in 2010 it was approved to enroll doctoral students in professional degree programs. In 2012, it was recognized as a specialty with distinctive features by the Shandong Provincial Department of Education. In 2015, it was designated a provincial-level key clinical specialty in Shandong Province.

After nearly half a century of accumulation and development, the department has produced a number of nationally renowned radiology experts, including Cao Laibin, Xu Deyong, Xu Aide, Xu Wenjian, and Liu Jihua, particularly in the diagnosis of diseases of the bone, joint, and soft-tissue systems within the field of conventional radiological diagnosis. It has consistently maintained a leading position in China in medical care, education, and research. With the rapid development of imaging technologies and equipment, the department has achieved leapfrog progress in talent development, equipment acquisition, discipline construction, diagnostic and treatment standards, and research innovation, and has made remarkable achievements in clinical care, teaching, and research.

2. Talent Structure

The department currently comprises the Departments of Radiology at our Shinan Campus, Laoshan Campus, Xihai'an Campus, and Shibei Campus, as well as the Department of Radiology of the Breast Center at the Laoshan Campus. It operates a management and service model combining “integration + localization + homogeneity” across multiple campuses and departments. The department currently has 203 staff members, including 79 physicians, 82 technologists, 21 nursing personnel, and 21 support staff. Of these, 16 hold full senior professional titles, 25 hold associate senior titles, 60 hold intermediate titles, and 100 hold junior titles or below. There are 2 doctoral supervisors and 12 master’s supervisors. Seventeen staff members hold doctoral degrees, 66 hold master’s degrees, and 71 hold bachelor’s degrees. The department is divided into four specialty groups: bone and joint, neuro-head and neck, thoracic, and abdominal imaging. The bone and joint specialty is at a leading level nationally, while the neuro-head and neck, thoracic, and abdominal specialties are at an advanced level within Shandong Province.

At present, many of the department’s experts, including Xu Wenjian, Liu Jihua, Feng Weihua, Hao Dapeng, and Lin Qing, hold positions in national, provincial, and municipal academic organizations and professional associations. These positions include deputy head of the Bone and Joint Group of the Radiology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; member of the Chinese Society of Radiology; deputy head of the Youth Group for Bone and Joint Imaging of the Chinese Society of Radiology; member of the Head and Neck Professional Committee and the Breast Professional Committee of the Radiology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; member of the Radiologists Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; deputy chair and member of the Shandong Society of Radiology; deputy chair of the Shandong Society of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Imaging Medicine; deputy chair of the Shandong Imaging Quality Control Center; deputy chair of the Imaging Branch of the Shandong Medical Doctor Association; deputy chair, member, and council member of the Shandong Medical Imaging Research Association; chair of the Qingdao Society of Radiology; and chair of the Qingdao Imaging Quality Control Center. They also serve on the editorial boards of almost all major domestic imaging journals, including the Chinese Journal of Radiology, Clinical Radiology, and Practical Radiology, and have established a certain influence in the Chinese academic community. The department’s principal academic leader, Professor Xu Wenjian, has led 2 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 1 subproject of a major research and development program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and 1 project of the Qingdao Municipal Science and Technology Commission during the past 5 years. He was the fourth-ranked recipient of 1 Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the first-ranked recipient of 2 Third Prizes for Shandong Medical Science and Technology Innovation Achievements, and the fifth-ranked recipient of 1 First Prize and 1 Third Prize of the Qingdao Science and Technology Progress Award. He has received such honors as Shandong Province’s Top Ten Physicians (2015), Qingdao Leading Talent (2015 and 2019), Qingdao University Outstanding Graduate Supervisor (2016 and 2018), the Affiliated Hospital Outstanding Contribution Award (2014), Outstanding Contribution Expert of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2016), and the Great Physician Role Model Award (2018). He has published 18 SCI-indexed articles, 3 publications in Chinese national-level journals, and 15 publications in other core journals. He has served as chief editor of 5 books, chief editor of 2 national textbooks under the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan, and deputy chief editor of 2 books. Professor Xu Wenjian, the discipline leader, has profound academic expertise and can accurately identify the development direction of the specialty, giving him a certain influence among his peers in China. At the same time, the specialty has a strong academic backbone, and its academic talent structure is broadly rational.

3. Specialty Features

After long-term planning, construction, and development, the Department of Radiology of Qingdao University Affiliated Hospital has formed a medical imaging discipline with advanced equipment, a well-structured talent team, a complete range of specialties, and a leading position in China. In accordance with the needs of disciplinary development, it has established professional directions in bone and joint imaging diagnosis, neuro-head and neck imaging diagnosis, thoracic imaging diagnosis, abdominal imaging diagnosis, breast imaging diagnosis, and cardiovascular imaging diagnosis. Bone and joint imaging diagnosis is at a leading level nationally, while neuro-head and neck imaging diagnosis, thoracic imaging diagnosis, abdominal imaging diagnosis, and interventional radiology are at an advanced level within Shandong Province.

Bone and joint imaging diagnosis is the flagship specialty of the Department of Radiology. In particular, bone and joint X-ray diagnosis has consistently been at a leading level in China and is recognized by peers nationwide. Professor Cao Laibin, the department’s former director, was a medical expert ranked fourth nationally by number of publications and had profound expertise in the study of bone and joint diseases. He is widely recognized as a founder and leader of bone radiology in China. The book Bone and Joint X-ray Diagnosis, of which he was chief editor, went through three re-editions and is widely recognized as China’s first large-scale, richly illustrated reference and advanced professional book on bone radiological diagnosis. It made an enormous contribution to the initial development and advancement of bone and joint imaging diagnosis in China.

In recent years, through the joint efforts of a new generation of radiology experts, the bone and joint imaging diagnosis specialty has been well inherited and developed. Under the leadership of the current department director, Professor Xu Wenjian, the team has inherited and advanced the traditional strengths of the discipline in bone and joint imaging diagnosis and has achieved significant results in exploring new technologies, methods, and knowledge in modern bone and joint imaging diagnosis. The team has successively carried out comparative imaging studies of musculoskeletal diseases, research on new MRI technologies such as diffusion-weighted imaging and perfusion imaging, research on imaging fundamentals and clinical applications, and comparative studies of imaging and molecular biology, achieving abundant results. These achievements have given the bone and joint imaging diagnosis specialty distinctive disciplinary characteristics and enabled it to remain at a leading level nationally. In recent years, the department has published more than 160 papers on musculoskeletal imaging diagnosis and has published nearly 10 specialist books as chief editor or chief translator, including Practical Musculoskeletal Imaging; CT and MR Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Diseases; Illustrated Atlas of Differential Imaging Diagnosis of Bone and Joint Diseases; Imaging of Soft-Tissue Tumors; Bone Radiology—Defining Normal and Early Pathological Findings; and Chinese Imaging Medicine: Musculoskeletal System Volume. Bone Radiology: Defining Normal and Early Pathological Findings received the Second Prize for Outstanding Scientific and Technical Books from the Scientific and Technical Publishers of East China at the 19th East China Science and Technology Publishing Awards. The project Imaging Series Studies of Adult Femoral Head Ischemic Necrosis received the Third Prize of the Shandong Science and Technology Progress Award.

4. Medical Technology

The department has a complete set of imported advanced imaging examination equipment and image transmission systems, including 9 MRI scanners with field strengths of 3.0T and 1.5T manufactured by leading imaging-equipment companies in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, and Japan, including the world’s most advanced Siemens PRISMA 3.0T MRI; 19 multi-slice spiral CT scanners, including Siemens dual-source CT, Gemstone HD CT, 64-slice CT, 128-slice CT, and 256-slice CT; 8 digital gastrointestinal contrast examination units; 29 DR and CR systems; and a PACS. The department can perform CT spectral imaging, CT coronary angiography, MR functional imaging, CT and MR perfusion imaging, CT and MR dynamic contrast enhancement, mammography, X-ray, and various CT and MR examinations. It possesses and comprehensively applies advanced technologies such as metal artifact reduction, CT low-dose imaging, CT dynamic tracking, and MR real-time imaging. The department has achieved complete coverage of imaging examination systems and organs and can provide a basis for the precise selection of treatment plans and the evaluation of post-treatment efficacy.

5. Research and Teaching

The discipline currently undertakes 2 National Natural Science Foundation projects, 4 provincial research projects, and 8 departmental- and municipal-level research projects. In recent years, it has published more than 30 papers each year in renowned professional journals in China and abroad, published 3–5 monographs, and demonstrated strong research capabilities.

The discipline places great emphasis on external exchange and cooperation. Each year, it invites renowned professors from universities in China and abroad to give lectures at the hospital, and every 3–5 years it organizes an international or national academic conference or teaching seminar on imaging. The department has a Sino-German Bilateral Exchange and Training Program in Radiology funded by the German Ministry of Health, which has been conducted continuously for 17 years. Each year, it selects 1–2 outstanding staff members for specialized study in the United States or Germany. More than 80 physicians from the hospital have completed such training.

The department adheres to innovation and development in teaching practice. It was among the first departments within the university to introduce multimedia teaching and bilingual teaching, achieving significant results. The department holds subspecialty lectures every week, engages foreign teachers to provide English-learning and training sessions, and conducts weekly discussions of difficult and critically ill cases centered on imaging diagnosis, as well as teaching-case discussions, thereby strengthening the basic clinical skills of graduate students and undergraduate interns. These measures have fully stimulated students’ enthusiasm for professional study, enriched their extracurricular lives, improved their professional competence, and raised the overall quality of teaching. To date, the department has trained more than 900 undergraduate students in imaging and more than 200 master’s students.

The department has repeatedly organized continuing medical education courses and academic exchange activities at various levels and has undertaken the compilation of imaging textbooks published by the People’s Medical Publishing House, including Medical Imaging, a Ministry of Health Twelfth Five-Year Plan textbook for higher education institutions; Medical Imaging, a national postgraduate textbook for higher education institutions; Diagnostic Medical Imaging; and Radiological Diagnosis. In recent years, the Medical Imaging Teaching and Research Office has repeatedly been recognized as an Advanced Teaching Collective and an Advanced Collective for Exemplary Teacher Ethics. Many staff members have been named Outstanding Graduate Supervisors of Shandong Province, Outstanding Graduate Supervisors of Qingdao University, Outstanding Teachers of Qingdao University, and Exemplary Teachers of Qingdao University.

6. Patient Guide

(1) Department Locations

Shinan Campus: Laibin Building, B1 of the Outpatient Building, and B2 of the Inpatient Examination Center

Laoshan Campus: Building 2, 1st floor

Xihai'an Campus: 1st floor of the Outpatient Building

(2) Consultation Telephone Numbers

Shinan Campus: 82911310

Laoshan Campus: 82915509

Xihai'an Campus: 82919310

Note: If the above telephone numbers are difficult to reach, please call the hospital’s 96166 service hotline.