Neurology

The Department of Neurology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University was established in 1956. It has now developed into a modern neurology specialty integrating medical care, teaching, and scientific research, with a certain level of recognition nationally. The department is a Clinical Key Specialty Construction Project of the Ministry of Health; a Stroke Screening, Prevention and Treatment Base of the Ministry of Health; a Neurology Advanced Study and Training Base for the Capacity Building and Continuing Education program of the National Health Commission; one of the first 2011 Collaborative Innovation Centers in Anhui Province; a key discipline of Anhui Province; the Anhui Provincial Neurology Quality Control Center; the Anhui Provincial Clinical Medical Research Center for Neurological Diseases; and the chairing institution of the Neurology Branch of the Anhui Medical Association and the Neurology Physicians Branch of the Anhui Medical Doctor Association. The department is authorized to confer doctoral and master's degrees in neurology and has a postdoctoral research station.

The department currently has more than 100 healthcare professionals, including 17 chief physicians and professors, 25 associate chief physicians and associate professors, and 2 associate research fellows; 4 associate chief nurses and 48 nurses in charge. There are currently 10 doctoral supervisors and 23 master's supervisors.

The department has 5 general wards, 1 neurological intensive care unit, and 1 hyperbaric oxygen rehabilitation center.

Advanced Technologies

The department has more than 210 beds, approximately 160,000 outpatient visits annually, more than 8,000 inpatients annually, and more than 440 operations annually.

The department routinely provides diagnosis and treatment for cerebrovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, neuroimmune diseases and rare diseases, neurogenetic diseases, sleep disorders, and epilepsy, as well as hyperbaric oxygen therapy and botulinum toxin treatment.

The advanced technology programs and key development directions include: (1) Neuropsychology and cognitive disorders: The team established a memory disorder outpatient clinic in 2000, and its neuropsychological and cognitive assessment technology is absolutely leading in China. (2) Individualized precision-targeted neuromodulation technology: Navigation-guided individualized TMS stimulation is used for Parkinson’s disease, AD, and other diseases. The one-stop Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and treatment center and the neuromodulation center adopt a multidisciplinary team (MDT) integrated diagnosis and treatment model to facilitate the ultra-early diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. (3) Neurogenetics: Relying on a key laboratory of the Ministry of Education, the team has published high-level research results in Nature Genetics and other journals and has significant influence in China. (4) Cerebrovascular diseases and neurological critical care: The stroke diagnosis and treatment system is well established, neurological interventional technology is leading within the province, and emergency treatment is highly efficient. (5) Rare disease diagnosis and treatment system: The department took the lead in establishing the Anhui Provincial Alliance for Neurological Rare Diseases and is equipped with advanced laboratories, providing an effective means of addressing difficult and rare neurological diseases in Anhui Province. (6) Sleep disorders and epilepsy: Multidisciplinary collaboration is used to provide epilepsy diagnosis and treatment, with advanced electroencephalography and sleep-monitoring technologies; the level of diagnosis and treatment is leading within the province.

Department Honors

Over the past 5 years, the department has received more than 30 national-level research project awards, including 1 Integrated Project under a Major Research Plan, 1 Key Project, 2 Regional Key Special Projects, and 1 Brain Initiative under the Science and Technology Innovation 2030 program, and has received more than 20 million yuan in research funding at various levels. The discipline’s first authors or corresponding authors have published more than 250 SCI papers, including in internationally renowned journals such as Nature Genetics and Nature Communications. The research achievements have received, respectively, the Second Prize of the Chinese Medical Association Medical Science and Technology Award, the First Prize of the Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, the Second Prize of the Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, and the Third Prize of the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Award. The discipline of neurology has clear talent advantages, including 1 Wu Jieping–Paul Janssen Medical and Pharmaceutical Award recipient, 1 National Outstanding Young Physician, 2 recipients selected for the National Hundred-Thousand-Ten Thousand Talent Project of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 1 Wanjiang Scholar, 4 Jianghuai Famous Doctors, 2 Young Jianghuai Famous Doctors, 4 provincial academic leaders, and 2 recipients of the Anhui Provincial Outstanding Young Scientists Fund.