Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM)

The Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) is an affiliated institution of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, the Institute of Respiratory Medicine of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Department of Respiratory Medicine of Capital Medical University. It is also a national key discipline (respiratory diseases in internal medicine), a national clinical key specialty, and a demonstration unit for standardized PCCM development. The PCCM Department has established a whole-course respiratory disease system covering promotion, prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment and rehabilitation, from early prevention of respiratory diseases to lung transplantation for end-stage lung disease.

Department Personnel:

The department’s academic leader is Wang Chen, a renowned Chinese expert in pulmonary and critical care medicine and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The department director is Cao Bin. The deputy directors are Yang Ting, Zhai Zhenguo, Zhan Qingyuan, Chen Wenhui and Hou Gang. The head nurse is Lin Fang, and the deputy head nurse is Li Jiehong.

The department currently has one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and one Ministry of Education Chang Jiang Scholar who is also a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. There are 14 chief physicians, 11 deputy chief physicians, 32 attending physicians and 27 resident physicians; 68 of the physicians hold doctoral degrees, forming a strong and well-structured professional talent team.

Outpatient Clinics and Inpatient Wards:

The PCCM Department currently operates a special-needs respiratory clinic, specialist clinics, disease-specific clinics and general clinics. It has 300 available beds, including general wards, a MICU, a lung transplant ward, a tuberculosis ward and the respiratory ward of the International Medical Department.

PCCM Diagnostic and Treatment Platforms:

The department’s technical platforms include the Clinical Microbiology and Infection Laboratory, Respiratory Interventional Diagnosis and Treatment Room, Sleep-Disordered Breathing Diagnosis and Treatment Room, Respiratory Therapy and Respiratory Physiology Laboratory, Airway Inflammation and Cytology Examination Room, and Allergen and Desensitization Therapy Laboratory. These platforms can perform various tests for pathogenic microorganisms causing respiratory infections; pulmonary vascular interventions such as right-heart catheterization and pulmonary angiography, pulmonary artery balloon dilatation and pulmonary artery stenting; and respiratory interventional diagnosis and treatment based on flexible bronchoscopy, rigid bronchoscopy, medical thoracoscopy and navigational bronchoscopy, including electromagnetic navigation and optical positioning navigation systems. They also perform pulmonary function testing, bronchial provocation testing, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and cytological analysis of induced sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, as well as multichannel sleep monitoring and ventilator pressure titration.

Diagnostic and Treatment Characteristics:

The department is a national leader in the following fields and also has considerable international influence: respiratory failure and medical critical illness and respiratory support technology; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; asthma and chronic cough; respiratory system infections; pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale; interstitial lung disease; tobacco medicine and treatment of tobacco dependence; traditional Chinese medicine for lung diseases; lung transplantation; and pulmonary rehabilitation. The department has also begun to develop distinctive expertise in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, respiratory intervention and diagnosis and treatment of sleep-disordered breathing.

1. Respiratory Failure, Medical Critical Illness and Respiratory Support Technology

The department has a comprehensive pulmonary and critical care medicine system consistent with the modern framework of respiratory medicine, and has established a systematic and complete system of organ monitoring and support technologies. It has systematically established a standardized respiratory support technology system and is the largest extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) treatment center for respiratory failure in China. It has systematically established standardized respiratory and circulatory monitoring technologies; provides diagnosis and treatment for all common critical respiratory illnesses and is particularly a national leader in the diagnosis and treatment of critical illness caused by special respiratory tract infections; provides treatment for sepsis, various types of shock and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS); and provides ventilator weaning and rehabilitation for ventilator-dependent patients.

2. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

In recent years, the department has achieved numerous results in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of COPD, pulmonary rehabilitation, new drug development and clinical research. It has led and participated in multiple international and domestic multicenter clinical studies of new COPD drugs. It is currently conducting a stem-cell therapy study and multiple post-registration clinical studies. At the same time, it pioneered a standardized assessment and intervention program for COPD pulmonary rehabilitation, and developed a series of COPD rehabilitation training manuals and training courses, which have been recognized by trainees taking individual courses.

3. Asthma and Chronic Cough

The department has achieved nationally leading results in the treatment of severe, or refractory, asthma. It was the first institution in China to perform bronchial thermoplasty and is the institution with the largest number of completed procedures among Asian countries. It led the formulation of China’s standards for bronchial thermoplasty procedures and perioperative management. It has established a systematic method for asthma phenotype assessment and conducts individualized precision treatment. It also performs cough-sensitivity testing and induced-sputum cytology, and has achieved leading results in the diagnosis and treatment of cough.

4. Respiratory System Infections

The department was the first in China to establish a diagnostic and treatment model integrating a microbiology laboratory with respiratory infection care. It has developed and applied the most advanced international pathogen-diagnostic technologies, established China’s most comprehensive system for bacterial and fungal culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, antigen detection and nucleic-acid diagnosis, and cooperated with the clinical pharmacy team to truly achieve precise pathogen-guided treatment of respiratory infections. It treats more than 2,000 difficult infection cases referred from different regions every year.

5. Pulmonary Embolism, Pulmonary Hypertension and Cor Pulmonale

Under the leadership of Academician Wang Chen and Director Zhai Zhenguo, the department has long been engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary vascular diseases such as pulmonary embolism and pulmonary hypertension. It organizes a multidisciplinary team comprising specialists from pulmonary and critical care medicine, cardiac medicine and cardiac surgery, lung transplantation, ultrasonographic diagnosis, radiological diagnosis, nuclear medicine, and rheumatology and immunology to treat pulmonary vascular diseases including pulmonary embolism, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, other types of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary vasculitis. It routinely performs pulmonary thromboendarterectomy, pulmonary artery balloon angioplasty, pulmonary artery stenting, biopsy of intrapulmonary arterial lesions, bronchial artery embolization, right-heart catheterization, pulmonary angiography and other pulmonary vascular interventional procedures.

6. Interstitial Lung Disease

The current ILD specialty group has a multidisciplinary expert team led academically by Professor Dai Huaping, with respiratory specialists, respiratory radiologists, respiratory pathologists, thoracic surgeons, rheumatology and immunology physicians, and clinical and basic respiratory researchers as its core members. It has established a relatively standardized system for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of interstitial lung disease, as well as a patient data management system. Relying on the National 13th Five-Year Plan Key Research and Development Program—Precision Medicine Special Project—Respiratory System Disease Specialty Cohort Study—Interstitial Lung Disease Cohort Study, it has conducted long-term enrollment and follow-up of patients with interstitial lung disease. This has greatly promoted improvement in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of ILD and the establishment of a standardized ILD research system.

7. Lung Transplantation

The department performs approximately 100 lung transplant operations annually, ranking among the top three in China. It has extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment and transplant evaluation of patients with end-stage lung disease, lung transplantation, perioperative multidisciplinary comprehensive management, pulmonary rehabilitation guidance and long-term postoperative follow-up. It can perform complex lung transplantation procedures, including technically demanding lobar transplantation, lung transplantation for severe pulmonary hypertension, simultaneous coronary artery bypass grafting and lung transplantation, and combined liver-lung transplantation. It performs 2,000 bronchoscopies per year, including more than 200 grade IV airway interventional procedures annually.

8. Pulmonary Rehabilitation

The department has established a multidisciplinary team led by PCCM physicians and composed of rehabilitation physicians, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, swallowing therapists and PCCM nurses as its core members. It has implemented a system of multidisciplinary pulmonary rehabilitation rounds and consultations, built an Internet-of-Things-based standardized management system covering pulmonary rehabilitation from acute exacerbation through the stable phase to home-based care, and integrated patient-file management, pulmonary rehabilitation assessment, intervention and prevention. It has accumulated extensive practical experience in pulmonary rehabilitation and developed distinctive professional diagnostic and treatment expertise with leading advantages. It was the first in China to conduct early pulmonary rehabilitation interventions for patients with acute and critical illness and established a standardized ultra-early pulmonary rehabilitation process in the ICU. It has systematically established standardized postoperative management and early rehabilitation for lung transplant patients, providing strong support and assurance for perioperative lung transplant survival rates. It has established a national pulmonary rehabilitation collaboration network to support the national chronic disease prevention and control program, and established a standardized pulmonary rehabilitation diagnosis and treatment system, becoming a national demonstration and training center for pulmonary rehabilitation diagnosis and treatment.

9. Lung Cancer

Relying on the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, the lung cancer specialty group focuses on pulmonary nodule follow-up, early diagnosis and screening and minimally invasive treatment of lung cancer, precision targeted and immunotherapy for lung cancer, multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment, and management of lung-cancer comorbidities and treatment-related adverse reactions. Together with the departments of radiation oncology, thoracic surgery, pathology, imaging and intervention, it has established an MDT platform for lung cancer, providing patients with difficult and complex lung cancer with one-stop diagnosis and treatment by a multidisciplinary expert team.

10. Respiratory Intervention

The PCCM Department’s respiratory interventional diagnosis and treatment area was established in 2017 under the guidance of Academician Wang Chen and has gradually developed and improved. It is now a training base for respiratory endoscopists in China. The respiratory intervention team conducts a series of clinical and applied basic studies in interventional diagnosis and treatment for chronic airway diseases, lung cancer, interstitial lung disease, lung transplantation and pleural diseases, and has begun to develop distinctive expertise. It performs respiratory interventional diagnosis and treatment based on flexible bronchoscopy, rigid bronchoscopy, medical thoracoscopy and navigational bronchoscopy, including electromagnetic navigation and optical positioning navigation systems. It is gradually establishing a multichannel interventional pulmonology diagnosis, treatment and training system using transvascular, transairway and percutaneous approaches.

11. Sleep-Disordered Breathing

The Sleep Respiratory Diagnosis and Treatment Room has eight sleep-monitoring and treatment units that meet international standards. It conducts sleep monitoring at different levels, multiple sleep latency tests, noninvasive carbon dioxide monitoring, gastroesophageal reflux monitoring, nasopharyngeal acoustic reflection, manual pressure titration, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and other services. It is a comprehensive sleep-disorder diagnosis and treatment center for sleep-disordered breathing, insomnia, sleep behavior disorders, circadian rhythm disorders, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome and other sleep disorders.

Existing Disease-Specific Clinics:

The department has established disease-specific clinics in its areas of strength, including the interstitial lung disease clinic, asthma clinic, COPD clinic, pulmonary infection clinic, pulmonary embolism clinic, pulmonary hypertension clinic, sleep respiratory clinic, lung transplant clinic, lung cancer and pulmonary nodule clinic, chronic cough clinic, and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine cough and asthma clinic.

Department Research Achievements:

In recent years, the department has undertaken National Key Research and Development Programs, major projects, key projects, international cooperation projects, general projects and young investigator projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. It has also undertaken projects of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Medical and Health Science and Technology Innovation Project under the 14th Five-Year Plan. The department has established representative large-scale lung-health cohorts and disease-specific cohorts in China and produced a series of research achievements with significant international and domestic influence. These have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the European Respiratory Journal, Thorax, Chest and Critical Care Medicine. The results have been cited by authoritative international guidelines, and the department has led the development of multiple national guidelines.

Department Teaching:

The department undertakes teaching for undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students from Peking University Health Science Center, Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Capital Medical University and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. It is also a national base for PCCM single-course training, specialty training and standardized training, and trains a large number of professional and technical personnel in pulmonary and critical care medicine for China every year.

Department telephone numbers: Outpatient clinic: 010-84205252; inpatient wards: 010-84206272; nurses’ station: 010-84206276.