Anaesthesia and Operative Services Centre

The Anesthesia and Surgery Center was founded in 1957 and is one of the earliest anesthesiology disciplines in China to exist in the form of an independent department. Under the leadership of five generations of academic leaders — Director Tan Huiying, Director Li Shuren, Director Tian Ming, Director Xue Fushan, and Director Wang Yun — and through 68 years of inheritance and development, it has become a comprehensive clinical discipline integrating clinical anesthesia, pain diagnosis and treatment, teaching and scientific research, and comfort-oriented medical care, and is one of the anesthesiology disciplines with the strongest technical capabilities in the Beijing area, enjoying a high reputation nationwide.

Historical Heritage and Departmental Culture

"Dedication, care, collaboration, and self-improvement" is the departmental motto passed down to this day. The first director, Professor Tan Huiying, was one of the founders of modern anesthesiology in China. In 1956, she gave up the superior conditions in France and resolutely returned to China with advanced equipment, pioneering international exchange for China's anesthesiology discipline; in 2009 she received the "Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Anesthesiology Award". The second director, Professor Li Shuren, strongly promoted the recognition of anesthesiology as a secondary clinical discipline; in 1999 he was featured on a Chinese Medical Association commemorative stamp, in 2003 he was elected chairman of the Anesthesiology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, and he facilitated China's joining of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA). The third director, Professor Tian Ming, founded an airway management training course that has run for more than twenty years, making difficult airway management a distinctive strength of the discipline. The fourth director, Professor Xue Fushan, promoted the leapfrog development of the department's scientific research. The current director, Professor Wang Yun, is leading the transformation and upgrading of the discipline toward a perioperative medicine center.

Technical Features and Core Advantages

Clinical Anesthesia

With homogeneous quality across multiple campuses, the annual volume of surgical anesthesia ranks among the top in Beijing; the department has formed distinctive features in liver transplantation, cardiac and great-vessel surgery, infant surgery, severe obesity, and high-risk obstetric anesthesia. It carries out advanced techniques such as ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, autologous blood transfusion, and transesophageal echocardiography, and has established a complete perioperative organ protection system.

Difficult Airway Management

The airway management training course founded more than twenty years ago has trained large numbers of airway management professionals nationwide. Equipped with a full set of visualization devices including visual laryngoscopes, fiberoptic bronchoscopes, and video laryngoscopes, it carries out awake intubation, retrograde intubation, and many other difficult airway management techniques, holding a nationally leading position.

Comfort-Oriented Medical Care

As the designated unit for painless endoscopic anesthesia, the department provides comfort-oriented medical services such as painless gastroscopy and colonoscopy, bronchoscopy, labor analgesia, and painless artificial abortion. It is a comfort-oriented medical care training base of the Anesthesiologists Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association and the Chinese Society of Endoscopy.

Pain Diagnosis and Treatment

In November 2024, an Anesthesia and Pain Diagnosis and Treatment ward (20 beds) was established, providing specialized diagnosis and treatment of neuropathic pain, spinal and musculoskeletal pain, cancer pain, and other conditions. In parallel, an anesthesia treatment clinic and anesthesia-sleep titration services have been launched, extending from intraoperative support to full perioperative management and pain diagnosis and treatment.

Talent Echelon and Discipline Development

The department has 152 medical and nursing staff, including 118 physicians (16 with full senior titles, 23 with associate senior titles) and 34 anesthesia nurses. All physicians hold master's or doctoral degrees, and many have studied and trained in Europe, the United States, and other countries. There are 2 doctoral supervisors and 4 master's supervisors, 2 professors and 4 associate professors; 1 postdoctoral fellow has completed in-station training, and more than 40 doctoral and over 100 master's students have been trained; the department is a standardized residency training base (rated an excellent hospital base for 6 consecutive years); it receives more than 10 advanced-training physicians annually and holds national-level continuing education programs on airway management, ultrasound application, and other topics.

Research Strength

The department has formed eight major research directions: regional blockade anesthesia, pain diagnosis and treatment, molecular mechanisms of pain, perioperative immune regulation, anesthesia-sleep medicine, organ protection, visualization techniques for the difficult airway, and comfort-oriented medical care. In recent years it has obtained 4 National Natural Science Foundation grants and 7 Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation grants, published more than 350 SCI papers, and its research capability ranks among the top nationwide. It has established research platforms for myocardial, nervous system, and transplanted organ ischemia/reperfusion injury, promoting the translation of basic research results into clinical applications.

Service Philosophy

The department adheres to "patient-centered, quality-focused" principles and advocates a humanistic care culture of "people-oriented" practice. Preoperatively, thorough assessment and communication lead to the formulation of individualized plans; intraoperatively, close monitoring and precise control are applied; postoperatively, effective analgesia and rapid recovery are provided. The department has built a departmental culture wall and produced the promotional film "Humanistic Anesthesia", fostering a good atmosphere of respecting the elderly and caring for the young, dedication to one's post, and care for patients.

Looking to the future, the Department of Anesthesiology of Beijing Friendship Hospital will continue to deepen the construction of the perioperative medicine system, improve the multi-campus coordinated development mechanism, and promote the high-quality development of the discipline, writing a new chapter in safeguarding patients' lives and advancing anesthesiology.