Rheumatology and Immunology

The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University was established in 1990. The discipline integrates medical care, teaching, and scientific research, with overall strength at an advanced domestic level. It is an authorized doctoral/master’s degree-granting discipline in rheumatology and immunology, a key priority development discipline in provincial clinical medicine, the Provincial Medical Quality Control Center for Rheumatology and Immunology, and a National Drug Clinical Trial Base.

The department currently has 58 healthcare professionals, including 24 physicians, 4 doctoral supervisors, and 6 master’s supervisors. Among them are 6 chief physicians, 6 deputy chief physicians, 11 attending physicians, and 3 research personnel and 3 technicians. There are also 2 Jianghuai Famous Doctors and 2 provincial academic leaders.

Strengths

The discipline has 2 independent wards, with 100 beds in operation, nearly 130,000 outpatient visits annually, and more than 3,000 inpatients annually. The discipline’s laboratory tests more than 50 autoantibodies, providing support for the diagnosis of difficult and complex diseases. On the basis of precise diagnosis, traditional and small-molecule targeted drugs, biological agents, plasma exchange, stem cell therapy, and other novel treatment methods are used rationally to formulate individualized treatment plans for each patient, greatly improving the success rate of diagnosis and treatment for difficult and critically ill cases, making the discipline a leading regional discipline for rheumatic and immune diseases and related difficult and complicated internal medicine conditions in the province and surrounding areas.

Department Honors

The discipline is currently the leading unit of the Provincial Rheumatology and Immunology Physicians Association, the incoming leading unit of the Provincial Rheumatology Society, the chairing unit of the Provincial Rheumatology and Immunology Specialty Alliance, and a national-level demonstration unit for the diagnosis and treatment of SLE and spondyloarthritis. It has led 7 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and more than 10 provincial and ministerial-level projects, including the Provincial Key Research and Development Fund, and has published more than 100 SCI papers. It has served as chief editor/co-editor of 17 monographs and 3 national-planning textbooks. It has received 3 second prizes for scientific and technological progress in Anhui Province and 1 first prize for medical science and technology in the province.