Endocrinology

1. Strong professional expertise The Department of Endocrinology at Dongguan People's Hospital has two inpatient units, at Honglou and Puji, with a total of 90 beds in operation. The team currently includes 19 physicians and 32 nursing staff. Three hold doctoral degrees, including one who has undertaken postdoctoral work, and six hold master's degrees; four staff members hold full senior professional ranks and seven hold associate senior professional ranks under the Chinese professional title system. The department also has four specialist diabetes nurses, one specialist geriatric nurse, one education nurse and one nurse specializing in diabetic foot wound dressings.

The department has strong technical expertise and comprehensive capabilities, with nearly 3,600 inpatient admissions and approximately 120,000 outpatient visits each year. It has received one second prize and one third prize in the Dongguan Science and Technology Progress Awards, one Guangdong provincial research fund award, three key projects of Dongguan and seven general projects of the city's Science and Technology Bureau. It participates in multiple national and provincial multicenter studies led by hospitals including the Second Xiangya Hospital, the First and Second Affiliated Hospitals of Sun Yat-sen University, and Zhujiang Hospital, and undertakes a total of 12 Phase II, III and IV drug clinical trials. The department has published three monographs and 46 research papers, including 10 SCI-indexed papers and 18 papers in core journals.

Subspecialty development is central to the department's work, with five priority areas: diabetes and its complications, thyroid disorders, obesity, gonadal and growth and developmental disorders, and secondary hypertension. The department is a Dongguan key clinical specialty, the chairing institution of the Endocrinology Branch of the Dongguan Medical Association, and a member of endocrine and metabolic disease alliances with several renowned hospitals within and outside Guangdong. It has successively been designated a branch center of the National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, the Dongguan branch of the National Standardized Metabolic Disease Management Center (MMC), the Dongguan branch of the Guangdong Guidance Center for Integrated Prevention and Treatment of Obesity and Diabetes, a national center for standardized diagnosis and treatment of thyroid eye disease, a nationally designated unit for dissemination of standardized endocrine disease prevention and treatment experience, and a Guangdong diabetes remission public education base.

2. Continually improving clinical expertise The inpatient units are equipped with advanced medical equipment and can perform comprehensive routine and dynamic endocrine function tests. A range of endocrine diagnostic and therapeutic techniques supports a specialized, advanced platform for endocrine medicine. In its daily work, the department provides diagnosis, treatment and emergency care for patients across the hospital and Dongguan with diabetes and its complications, thyroid disorders, pituitary and adrenal disorders, obesity, gonadal and growth and developmental abnormalities, parathyroid disorders, osteoporosis and other endocrine conditions. Its capabilities, case volume and technical complexity in diagnosing and treating difficult and critical endocrine disorders are advanced within the province and leading within the city, with some areas among the province's foremost. It has developed into a large, strong clinical discipline with a leading position and a strong reputation in Dongguan. For several consecutive years, it has ranked 6th–7th in endocrinology in Guangdong's MDC discipline development assessment and 8th–9th among endocrinology departments in prefecture-level cities nationwide.

The department currently offers several distinctive techniques, including 3C therapy for diabetes; intensive insulin pump therapy for inpatients with sequential outpatient treatment and follow-up; diabetic foot screening and multidisciplinary treatment; medical weight management; hospital-wide glucose management supported by information systems and multidisciplinary collaboration; and glucose management for gestational diabetes using iPRO2 continuous glucose monitoring. Other distinctive techniques include ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology of thyroid nodules, aspiration of cystic thyroid nodules combined with sclerotherapy, microwave ablation of thyroid lesions, medical weight management and sequential treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.

The department actively promotes multidisciplinary collaboration (the MDT model) for difficult, complex conditions and care spanning multiple specialties. In collaboration with Interventional Radiology, it performs bilateral adrenal venous sampling (AVS) to assess the subtype of primary aldosteronism and identify the dominant side of secretion to guide treatment. Together with Urology, Interventional Radiology, Medical Imaging and Pathology, it has formed an adrenal disease MDT for precise treatment. It collaborates with Neurosurgery and Medical Imaging to treat pituitary disorders; with Ophthalmology and Radiation Oncology to diagnose and treat thyroid-associated eye disease and diabetic eye disease; and with Thyroid Surgery and Nuclear Medicine to diagnose and treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid tumors.