Nephrology

1. Overview of the Discipline

The Department of Nephrology was established in 1979. It was the first independent, fully established tertiary nephrology discipline in the province with its own ward. In the early 1980s, it began performing percutaneous renal biopsies and measuring glomerular and tubular function, and established standardized peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis units. In 1990, it completed the construction of a large-scale blood purification center that was among the best in China. It was among the first master's degree authorization sites approved by the State Council and became a doctoral degree-granting site in 2009. The Department of Nephrology is a key specialty in Shandong Province and a specialty with distinctive features in Qingdao. It has successively received awards including the hospital’s Most Growth-Potential Department Award, Top Ten Departments Award, Spiritual Civilization Department Management Award, Medical Quality Excellence Award, Infection Management Excellence Award, and Outstanding Party Branch Award. It is a National Pharmaceutical Affairs Base for Nephrology, a National Resident Physician Training Base for Nephrology, a National Clinical Drug Trial Base, and a Specialized Training Base for Blood Purification Nursing.

Through the continuous efforts, pioneering spirit, and ongoing innovation of several generations of department staff, the Department of Nephrology has achieved qualitative leaps in department size, academic standards, medical equipment, and talent development. Under the leadership of the department director, medical and nursing staff at all levels will continue to improve medical technology through high-quality services and a warm attitude, build an industry brand, and strive to develop the Department of Nephrology into a leading renal disease diagnosis and treatment center in Shandong Province and even nationwide. Upholding the concept of putting patients’ needs at the center, the discipline has made unremitting efforts to standardize medical practice, improve the diagnosis and treatment of difficult cases, carry out clinical technological innovation, promote the concept of translational medicine, and improve the overall competence of personnel, thereby achieving the goal of providing patients with high-quality medical services.

2. Talent Structure

The Department of Nephrology is a professionally comprehensive, high-level medical, teaching, and research team headed by doctoral supervisors and supported by a group of highly qualified young and middle-aged technical specialists. At present, the discipline has 27 physicians, including 7 professors, 6 associate professors, 8 attending physicians, and 6 resident physicians. There are 13 physicians with doctoral degrees and 14 with master’s degrees. There are 2 doctoral student supervisors and 12 master’s student supervisors. The discipline leader concurrently serves as: Vice Chair of the National Society of Diagnostics; a national committee member of the Nephrology Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; a national committee member of the Nephrology and Dialysis Special Committee of the China Non-Government Medical Institutions Association; a national committee member of the Nephrology Committee of the Chinese Pharmacological Society; a national committee member of the Expert Committee on Nephrology and Blood Purification of the Chinese Medical Women’s Association; an expert reviewer for National Quality Courses; a reviewer for the National Natural Science Foundation of China; and a Young and Middle-Aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions in Shandong Province, among other positions. The department has a rational talent structure, providing a strong foundation for leapfrog development in medical care, education, and research. The leaders of all subspecialties hold senior professional titles. Subspecialties have been established in hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, autoimmune renal injury, nephrotic syndrome, delaying renal failure, metabolic disease-related renal injury, and tubulointerstitial diseases.

3. Professional Features

(1) Hemodialysis

The Department of Nephrology currently has the Shinan Campus and the West Coast Campus. Each campus has an outpatient department, inpatient wards, and a blood purification center. At present, our department has 83 hemodialysis machines, 10 online HDF machines, and 6 CRRT machines. The annual outpatient volume is 66,000 visits, and the annual number of inpatients is more than 1,400. There are more than 520 regular hemodialysis patients, ranking first in the province. The annual number of hemodialysis treatments is ≥70,000, and the annual number of CRRT treatments is nearly 1,000. We have developed high-flux dialysis, high-flux hemodialysis (HFHD), high-volume hemodiafiltration (HVHF), immunoadsorption, plasma exchange, hemoperfusion, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), sustained low-efficiency dialysis (SLED), hybrid blood purification therapy, and other technologies. These mutually complementary individualized treatment models have greatly improved the treatment outcomes and quality of life of patients with acute and chronic renal failure. In particular, our admission volume for elderly, critically ill, and complex cases of acute and chronic renal failure is among the highest. Over the past five years, several new technologies have been successfully introduced. Pediatric hemodialysis has been successfully performed for children weighing more than 25 kg. The introduction of citrate anticoagulation technology has provided an effective option for hemodialysis in patients with active bleeding and improved the treatment of high-risk patients with active bleeding. Painless injection techniques have been continuously refined, reducing the pain of vascular puncture in dialysis patients. For patients with difficult and critical renal diseases, multidisciplinary treatment teams have been established for “uremic secondary hyperparathyroidism,” “peripheral vascular disease and cardiovascular disease in end-stage renal disease,” and “tumor diseases in end-stage renal disease,” and related surgical treatments have been successfully carried out.

(2) Renal Biopsy Technology

Renal biopsy involves obtaining renal tissue under B-ultrasound guidance, followed by light microscopy, electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and various special stains, thereby clarifying the pathological type of renal lesions and providing a reliable basis for guiding clinical medication and estimating prognosis. Our department purchased an advanced portable color B-mode ultrasound diagnostic instrument from the United States and performs bedside renal biopsy. Patients suspected of having rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, acute renal failure, acute interstitial nephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, or unexplained proteinuria or hematuria routinely undergo renal biopsy. This enables definitive pathological diagnosis of these diseases and provides a reliable basis for clarifying pathological types, guiding scientific clinical drug treatment, estimating prognosis, and establishing follow-up protocols. It has improved diagnostic concordance and avoided the waste and adverse effects of drug misuse. All physicians at the attending physician level or above can skillfully perform renal biopsy. Our department currently performs more than 300 renal biopsies annually and has accumulated extensive experience in renal biopsy. The portable color B-mode ultrasound diagnostic instrument has greatly improved both technical maturity and safety.

(3) Peritoneal Dialysis

Our department was the first in the province to launch peritoneal dialysis and has gradually established a peritoneal dialysis subspecialty. At least 100 peritoneal dialysis catheterization procedures are performed annually, with more than 200 patients currently enrolled. As a traditional area of strength of nephrology, peritoneal dialysis is supported by a complete peritoneal dialysis ward equipped with professional nursing staff. A complete management system for peritoneal dialysis patients has been established, and a complete dialysis record is created for each patient. Regular home visits are made to peritoneal dialysis patients to provide technical guidance and lifestyle counseling. This has significantly improved the quality of life of most patients and made peritoneal dialysis one of the brand strengths of the Department of Nephrology at Qingyi.

(4) Hereditary Kidney Disease

A specialized disease clinic has now been established. During the past three years, more than 2,000 visits have been provided for patients with tubulointerstitial diseases, hereditary kidney diseases, and hypokalemic disorders. Gene sequencing and special examination methods have been used to establish definitive diagnoses and formulate effective treatment plans for many patients, with a high diagnostic accuracy rate. Multidisciplinary collaboration has been achieved with the departments of pathology, laboratory medicine, and radiology, providing strong technical support for disease diagnosis and treatment. In addition, this subspecialty has achieved numerous research results in tubulointerstitial diseases and accumulated extensive clinical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of common kidney diseases.

(5) Acute Renal Failure

From both research and clinical perspectives, we are comprehensively committed to studying the pathogenesis of acute renal failure, exploring early markers of acute renal failure, improving its diagnostic and treatment standards, and progressively enhancing our ability to manage difficult and critical complications. In the past three years, we have successfully treated more than 200 patients with acute renal failure. Conventional hemodialysis, hemodiafiltration, CRRT, and other blood purification technologies provide strong technical support for the treatment of acute renal failure. The research team led by Professor Xu Yan has actively explored this field, successfully secured a General Program grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and received RMB 1 million in research funding, providing strong support for further study of the pathogenesis of acute renal failure and exploration of interventional treatment methods.

(6) Primary and Secondary Kidney Diseases

For primary kidney diseases such as autoimmune kidney diseases, including ANCA-associated small-vessel vasculitis and lupus nephritis, and IgA nephropathy, as well as secondary kidney diseases such as diabetic nephropathy, hypertensive nephropathy, hyperuricemic nephropathy, and obesity-related nephropathy, individualized treatment plans are formulated and comprehensive clinical prevention and treatment measures are explored. In basic research, the pathogenesis and interventional treatments of these diseases have been investigated at the animal, pathological, cellular, protein, and genetic levels. To date, certain achievements have been made in the study of pathogenesis and clinical diagnosis and treatment of ANCA-associated small-vessel vasculitis, lupus nephritis, diabetic nephropathy, and hypertensive nephropathy.

4. Research and Teaching

In recent years, the department has undertaken 3 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and more than 20 scientific research projects funded by local governments at the provincial and municipal levels. It has research funds of RMB 2.92 million at its disposal. Twelve projects have been appraised as reaching internationally advanced or domestically leading levels. More than 10 provincial- and municipal-level scientific research awards have been received. Ten books have been edited or co-edited, and more than 200 articles have been published in core journals, including more than 30 indexed by SCI. The department has served as editor-in-chief of 5 books and contributed to 9 books. It holds 2 invention patents and 15 utility model patents. Distinguished scholars have also been appointed as visiting professors. More than 10 people have gone abroad for study or academic visits, and 3 doctoral graduates have returned to China after completing their studies and played an active role in the development of the discipline.

The discipline also attaches importance to the development of the teaching team and has formulated a training plan for young and middle-aged teachers, clarifying their responsibilities and training objectives. It has a strong faculty. All course instructors hold doctoral or master’s degrees and have extensive teaching experience, high academic standards, and strong foreign-language proficiency. Each year, the department successfully completes the theoretical, observational, and internship teaching tasks for five-year and seven-year clinical medical students and international students from Southeast Asia. To strengthen the clinical skills of young medical and nursing staff and graduate students, the department successfully held the “First Clinical Skills Competition of the Department of Nephrology.” The competition improved the basic skills of medical and nursing personnel and enhanced departmental cohesion and the learning atmosphere.

The Department of Nephrology places great emphasis on practical teaching for graduate students and has systematic graduate teaching and training plans. More than 100 graduate students have been trained in total, including 12 doctoral students. Graduate students from our department have won first prize in the “Hospital-wide Graduate Medical Record Writing Competition” for three consecutive sessions and first prize in the “English Speech Competition.” Several graduate students have received national scholarships.

5. Patient Visit Guide

(1) Department Locations

Outpatient Department, Shinan Campus: 4th floor of the Outpatient Building

Laoshan Campus: 2nd floor of the Outpatient Building

West Coast Campus: 2nd floor of the Outpatient Building

Inpatient Ward, Shinan Campus: 3rd floor of the First Inpatient Department

West Coast Campus: 10th floor of Ward Building B

Blood Purification Center: Shinan Campus: 3rd floor of the First Inpatient Department

West Coast Campus: 2nd floor of Ward Building B

(2) Consultation Telephone Numbers

Shinan Campus: 82911301, 82911601

West Coast Campus: 82919619, 82919169