Pain Medicine

In 1988, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University was the first in China to establish an outpatient pain clinic. In 1989, it was the first in China to establish an inpatient pain ward and formally established the Department of Pain Medicine. Through the concerted efforts of four generations of medical and nursing staff, the department has now developed into one of the first “Pilot Units for Comprehensive Pain Management” designated by the National Health Commission; the “Chongqing Training Base” for the “Special Capacity Enhancement Project for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pain Disorders” of the Capacity Building and Continuing Education Center of the National Health Commission; one of the first sentinel hospitals of the National Pain Medical Quality Control Center; one of the first “Demonstration Wards for Standardized Cancer Pain Treatment” designated by the former Ministry of Health; a “Pain Treatment Center” and a “Women’s Civilized Post” designated by the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission; the “Training Base for Specialized Pain Nurses” in Chongqing; the chairing institution of the “Chongqing Pain Specialty Alliance”; the regional leading institution for the “Ultrasound AI Empowerment Project of the Sakura Pain Ultrasound Academy” of the National Pain Diagnosis and Treatment Research Center; a council member institution of the “Western China Center of the Chinese Neuromodulation Alliance”; an out-of-Beijing clinical teaching and development base for specialized pain nurses of the Chinese Nursing Association; a standing committee member institution of the Pain Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association and the Pain Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; and the chairing institution of the Pain Medicine Branch of the Chongqing Medical Association, among others. It was ranked 12th nationally among the nominated specialties in the inaugural 2022 “Fudan” Specialty Reputation Ranking for Pain Medicine, 11th among the nominees in 2023, and 2nd in the pain medicine reputation ranking in southwestern China.

After 37 years of development, the Department of Pain Medicine currently has 25 operational beds and 23 medical staff members, including 3 senior professional and technical personnel, 2 deputy senior personnel, 1 doctoral supervisor, 3 master’s supervisors, 2 postdoctoral fellows, 2 doctors with doctoral degrees, and 6 doctors with master’s degrees. The department possesses advanced equipment for pain diagnosis and treatment, including radiofrequency generators, ozone generators, a low-temperature plasma surgical system, a spinal endoscopic surgical system, color Doppler ultrasound equipment, and a quantitative thermal sensory testing instrument. It has established a hierarchical, standardized, and comprehensive system for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain, centered on difficult and critical pain disorders and based on nerve blocks and minimally invasive treatment. It leads the western region in a number of core minimally invasive interventional pain techniques, including patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), ultrasound-guided precise nerve block/neurolysis, radiofrequency techniques, low-temperature plasma techniques, microballoon compression of the trigeminal ganglion, spinal cord stimulation implantation for neuromodulation, implantation of intrathecal drug delivery systems for analgesia, and spinal endoscopic techniques. The department sees more than 27,000 outpatient visits and more than 1,000 inpatient visits annually; difficult and critical cases account for more than 80%, and its medical quality ranks among the best in the hospital.

For more than 30 years, the department has undertaken on-campus teaching in multiple specialties and at multiple levels for Chongqing Medical University, including courses such as Pain Diagnosis and Treatment, Standardized Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention of Pain Disorders, and Pain Nursing, as well as clinical internship teaching for undergraduates, graduate students, standardized residency trainees, international students, visiting trainees, general practitioners, clinical pharmacists, and others. It has trained more than 5,000 students of various types and more than 10 graduate students specializing in pain medicine. The department has published numerous teaching papers and has repeatedly won first, second, and third prizes in the collective categories of “On-Campus Teaching” and “Graduation Internship Teaching” from the First Clinical College. It has received the Second Prize for Teaching Achievements from Chongqing Medical University, and multiple teachers have repeatedly been awarded the titles of “Excellent Teacher,” “Excellence in Teaching and Educating Students,” and “Teacher Loved by Students.” Multiple young physicians have repeatedly won first, second, and third prizes in national and provincial or municipal speech contests for young physicians. At the same time, the department has successfully organized more than 30 continuing education courses and academic conferences in pain medicine, trained more than 10,000 medical and nursing personnel of various types, and has become a training base for senior pain medicine professionals in Chongqing and western China.

The department attaches great importance to scientific research and academic exchange. It has published more than 100 papers, including nearly 50 SCI-indexed papers published by first or corresponding authors; published more than 20 monographs; served as the principal investigator for more than 20 scientific research projects at various levels; participated in the compilation of more than 30 works, including the Chinese Expert Consensus (Guidelines) on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Pain Disorders, the Standards for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases in Chinese Pain Departments, and the Training Course on Core Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques in Chinese Pain Departments; participated in multiple national multicenter clinical research projects; obtained 8 national patents; and received a Science and Technology Achievement Award from the Municipal Health Commission and the Third Prize of the Provincial Science and Technology Award. From 2015 to 2024, the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission’s health-appropriate technology promotion project, “Standardized Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention of Pain Disorders,” received the Outstanding Promotion Project award four consecutive times. The department has become one of the most influential pain specialties in western China.

For more than 30 years, the Department of Pain Medicine has consistently carried out public education and health promotion on pain disorders in various forms. The department has been invited several times to present special lectures on pain diagnosis and treatment on health programs including CCTV-2 and CQTV-2, and has compiled, printed, and distributed multiple editions of pain health education manuals, numbering tens of thousands of copies. For more than 20 years, it has maintained a commitment to working at the community level, promoting health-appropriate technologies in more than 30 districts and counties of Chongqing, and providing guidance and assistance to pain departments in district and county hospitals in carrying out pain diagnosis and treatment, specialty development, and talent training, thereby strongly promoting the development of pain medicine in Chongqing. In addition, the department has actively participated in the “Healthy China: A Long March” campaign of the Pain Professional Committee of the Chinese Medical Women’s Association. Its work has extended throughout the central and western regions, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Tibet, and Hubei, and it has been deeply appreciated and widely praised by grassroots medical and nursing personnel and patients.