Infectious Diseases

The establishment of the Department of Infectious Medicine can be traced back to the Infection Group established within the gastroenterology specialty at Beijing Friendship Hospital in 1976. In 1994, it was established as the Department of Infectious and Emergency Medicine, and in 2004 it was officially renamed the Department of Infectious Medicine. Over nearly fifty years of inheritance and development, under the leadership of successive academic leaders including Wang Bao’en, Zhang Shuwen, Wang Hong, and Qi Wenjie, the department has adhered to the disciplinary spirit of “wholehearted dedication, every possible effort, racing against time, and meticulous care,” and has developed a distinctive and advantageous discipline centered on the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medical treatment of severe infections, combining medical care, teaching, research, and public-health prevention and control. It is a National Clinical Key Specialty, a Beijing Clinical Key Specialty, a key specialty under the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 12th Five-Year Plan, and a Beijing key discipline and research base for infectious diseases integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine; the host institution of the Famous Experts’ Research Studio of Wang Bao’en, a nationally renowned veteran traditional Chinese medicine expert; a Beijing training base for the integration of medical care and disease prevention; and a core hospital of Beijing’s specialty medical alliance and research alliance.

The department implements standardized and homogeneous management across its three campuses in Xicheng, Tongzhou, and Shunyi. It has 66 beds in operation and includes infectious disease wards, an expert outpatient clinic, a specialty outpatient clinic, a fever clinic, an intestinal clinic, and a specialized laboratory. Unified diagnostic and treatment standards, quality control, and service procedures enable the three campuses to operate collaboratively and efficiently. The department currently has 80 medical and nursing staff members, including 32 physicians and 48 nurses. It has established a talent echelon with a tiered complement of senior, mid-career, and young professionals, emphasizing both clinical practice and research. It has multiple doctoral and master’s supervisors, with high-level professionals and young core staff working together to provide solid support for the discipline’s sustained development.

The department focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of severe and difficult-to-diagnose infections, and has developed distinctive technical strengths in sepsis, acute severe pancreatitis, infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria, infections in immunocompromised patients, fever of unknown origin, invasive fungal infections, and infections caused by unusual and rare pathogens. It was among the first to conduct research on the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medical diagnosis and treatment of infection-associated multiple-organ dysfunction, established staging diagnostic criteria, developed a series of distinctive traditional Chinese medicine preparations, and built a systematic integrated diagnostic and treatment system, significantly reducing the case-fatality rate of patients with severe infections; the relevant achievements have reached an advanced level in China and internationally. In the diagnosis and treatment of acute severe pancreatitis, it pioneered an innovative comprehensive approach integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine; related research received the First Prize of the Beijing Medical Science and Technology Award and the Second Prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award. For severe conditions including complex clinical infections caused by resistant bacteria and fungi and systemic infections following organ transplantation, it has developed comprehensive emergency rescue protocols for infections in immunocompromised patients. For fever of unknown origin, it has established a comprehensive etiological differential-diagnosis system, jointly developed an artificial-intelligence-assisted diagnostic system with universities, and led the formulation of an expert consensus on the integrated traditional Chinese and Western medical diagnosis and treatment. It also undertakes work for the Beijing Mycoplasma Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network, helping standardize the diagnosis and treatment of infections caused by drug-resistant Mycoplasma.

In research, the department focuses on the frontiers of infectious diseases. To date, 66 research projects at various levels have been approved, with high-level projects such as subprojects of the National Key Research and Development Program and National Natural Science Foundation projects accounting for 40%; research funding totals nearly 30 million yuan. It has published more than 500 academic papers, received more than 20 provincial- or ministerial-level science and technology awards, and led or participated in the formulation of more than 10 industry guidelines and consensuses, advancing the standard of diagnosis and treatment for infectious diseases. In education, as an authorized doctoral and master’s degree-granting site of Capital Medical University, it has established a complete training system spanning undergraduate, master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral education. It has trained more than 100 graduate students and undertakes theoretical teaching for medical students at all levels, clinical instruction, and training for physicians undertaking further study. It carries forward the academic thinking of renowned veteran experts and supplies large numbers of backbone professionals to the field of infectious diseases.

The department has consistently fulfilled the mission of a public hospital. It undertakes the diagnosis, treatment, and management of the fever and intestinal clinics and has taken the lead on the front lines during major public-health emergencies including SARS, Ebola, MERS, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its professional capabilities, it safeguards regional public-health security and strengthens the first line of defense for public-health prevention and control.