Rheumatology and Immunology Ward

The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University is a Liaoning Provincial Key Clinical Specialty and a Dalian Municipal First-Level Key Discipline. It is the chairperson institution of the Rheumatology Branch of the Dalian Medical Association, the chairperson institution of the Rheumatology and Immunology Physicians Branch of the Dalian Medical Doctors Association, and the chairperson institution of the Rheumatology Branch of the Dalian Association of Chinese Medicine. The department has a technically proficient medical and nursing team with strong capabilities in managing difficult and complicated diseases and undertakes the diagnosis and treatment of difficult and severe rheumatic disease patients in Dalian.

Physicians at all levels have a good command of the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic and immune diseases and extensive clinical experience with common rheumatic diseases such as: systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Sjögren syndrome, inflammatory myopathies, psoriatic arthritis, systemic sclerosis, various vasculitides, Behçet’s disease, gouty arthritis, and osteoporosis; they also achieve good treatment outcomes for less common diseases in the specialty, such as relapsing polychondritis, adult-onset Still’s disease, retroperitoneal fibrosis, MDA5-positive dermatomyositis, and IgG4-related diseases. The rescue and treatment of difficult, critical, and severe rheumatic and immunologic diseases have reached an advanced level in China. The department is proficient in a range of techniques, including the use of novel immunopurification technology to treat acute and critical rheumatic and immunologic diseases, multi-target therapy for lupus nephritis, autoantibody testing, interpretation of imaging films, arthrocentesis, and various puncture procedures. It also provides diagnostic and treatment services for rheumatic diseases, including ultrasound-guided interventional treatment of arthritis, integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment of rheumatic diseases, interventional treatment for immune-related adverse pregnancy outcomes, and nailfold microcirculation testing for rheumatic diseases and prognostic prediction.

In 2014, the department was approved as the Dalian Key Laboratory for Autoantibody Testing; in 2016, it was approved as a Dalian Municipal First-Level Key Specialty; in 2018, it was approved as the Dalian Engineering Research Center for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Critical Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases; in the Fudan University specialty rankings in 2018, 2019, and 2020, it ranked seventh in the three northeastern provinces, third in Liaoning, and first in Dalian; in 2021, it was approved as a Liaoning Provincial Key Clinical Specialty.

For teaching, key physicians are sent each year to top hospitals such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital for further study; to date, this has involved more than 10 person-times. The department undertakes teaching tasks at various levels at Dalian Medical University, including the seven-year program, undergraduate, junior college, and international student programs. The department has strong scientific research capabilities. Several of its key personnel have led and participated in multiple national- and provincial-level scientific research projects and have published more than 100 papers in journals in the Chinese Medical Journal series, SCI-indexed journals, and national-level journals. The use of novel immunopurification technology to treat acute and critical rheumatic and immunologic diseases was introduced earliest in Liaoning Province. The department has successively won the second and third prizes of the Dalian Science and Technology Progress Award and, in 2020, the third prize of the Liaoning Science and Technology Progress Award.