Diamond Bay Campus Rehabilitation Medicine Department

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University was established in 2002. After nearly 20 years of development, it has now become a large-scale rehabilitation medicine center in southern Liaoning that combines modern rehabilitation with traditional rehabilitation. It is currently a clinical key specialty of Liaoning Province, a first-level key medical discipline of Dalian, the Dalian Stroke Rehabilitation Base, a national standardized residency training base for rehabilitation medicine, a national demonstration unit for traditional Chinese medicine work in general hospitals, and a Liaoning provincial demonstration unit for traditional Chinese medicine work in general hospitals.

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine consists of three parts: the rehabilitation outpatient clinic, the rehabilitation wards, and the Treatment Advancement Division. The wards have 105 authorized beds, including an integrated Chinese and Western medicine ward and a rehabilitation medicine ward. The department has a medical team of nearly 100 professional and technical personnel, including 14 doctors, of whom 4 hold doctoral degrees or are pursuing doctorates, 8 hold master’s degrees, 2 supervise master’s students, and 5 have associate-senior professional titles or above; 23 rehabilitation therapists; and 36 rehabilitation nursing professionals and technical personnel. Together, they form a rehabilitation medicine team with high professional ethics, outstanding technical expertise, and coordinated development integrating clinical practice, teaching, and research. The department currently covers multiple professional areas, including critical care rehabilitation, rehabilitation for disorders of consciousness, respiratory function rehabilitation, rehabilitation for swallowing and cognitive disorders, neurological rehabilitation, musculoskeletal rehabilitation, traditional medicine rehabilitation, hyperbaric oxygen rehabilitation, and rehabilitation treatment technology (PT/OT/ST/rehabilitation engineering). The department has established routine clinical diagnosis and treatment services such as arousal promotion for comatose patients, artificial airway management, respiratory function assessment and treatment, swallowing function assessment and treatment, VTE prevention and management, gastrointestinal function and nutritional management, and assessment and treatment of the neurogenic bladder and bowel.

“Standardization, innovation, improvement, and the courage to act” are the development principles consistently upheld by the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University. The Rehabilitation Medicine Department of Dalian Medical University has always kept pace with international standards, with rehabilitation concepts that are ahead of their time. It adheres to multidisciplinary collaboration and uses modern rehabilitation assessment as its foundation. While continuing to promote commonly used rehabilitation techniques such as the Bobath, PNF, Rood, and Brunnstrom techniques, it has introduced the latest modern rehabilitation technologies based on evidence-based medicine, including arousal-promoting rehabilitation, respiratory function rehabilitation, neurogenic bladder rehabilitation, and dysphagia rehabilitation. Respiratory function rehabilitation was pioneered in the Dalian area, addressing many severe pulmonary complications in critically ill patients, including pulmonary infections, respiratory distress, weak coughing, and difficulty expectorating, while shortening the duration of tube placement in patients with tracheostomies. Rehabilitation for disorders of consciousness uses a treatment approach involving the synergistic action of multiple pathways and multiple targets inside and outside the body. In addition to drug therapy, comprehensive measures are applied, including a transcranial direct current stimulation device (tDCS) and a transcranial magnetic stimulation device (TMS), which can directly intervene in the central nervous system, as well as hyperbaric oxygen and median nerve electrical stimulation. These measures have addressed disorders of consciousness, and more than 100 comatose patients have successfully regained consciousness. Dysphagia rehabilitation is a traditional area of strength of the department. On the basis of precise assessment using fiberoptic laryngoscopy, videofluoroscopic swallowing studies, and other examinations, the stage of dysphagia can be accurately determined. Through targeted rehabilitation treatment, the swallowing problems of countless patients with dysphagia have been successfully resolved. Acute-phase rehabilitation means beginning rehabilitative intervention within 24 hours of disease onset. In 2017, the department was the first in Dalian to initiate acute-phase rehabilitation, moving rehabilitation treatment earlier to ensure that patients could recover sooner and more effectively. Musculoskeletal rehabilitation is an important component of the department’s rehabilitation services. It mainly uses a holistic rehabilitation concept, specialized assessment, advanced treatment equipment, and highly skilled rehabilitation techniques to relieve patients’ musculoskeletal pain and suffering. In addition, the department has extensive treatment experience with female pelvic floor dysfunction, osteoporosis, facial paralysis, residual neuralgia after herpes zoster, lymphedema after tumor resection, and other difficult and complex conditions. The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is grounded in neurology and neurodevelopmental science. While applying modern rehabilitation technologies, it fully exploits the strengths of traditional Chinese medicine and integrates Chinese and Western medicine to achieve comprehensive rehabilitation of the human body.

The department undertakes numerous national-, provincial-, and municipal-level research projects, as well as teaching reform projects. Over the past 5 years, it has published more than 70 academic papers, including 6 SCI papers, published more than 20 textbooks and monographs, and obtained more than 10 national patents.

All staff of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University will uphold the Second Hospital’s motto, “Esteem virtue and honor medicine,” continue striving forward, provide high-quality services to patients, train qualified rehabilitation medicine professionals for the country, and contribute their share to the realization of Healthy China!