Rheumatology, Immunology and Nephrology Department

The Department of Rheumatology, Immunology and Nephrology is a key specialty of rheumatology under the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" and the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a key discipline of integrated Chinese-Western medicine rheumatology of Zhejiang Province, a famous TCM specialty of Zhejiang Province, a training base for rheumatology disciplines of Zhejiang Province (first batch), and a key discipline of Hangzhou. It has undertaken a number of key projects, including those of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Department and Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the Hangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and Health Bureau, and has won a number of first, second and third prizes of the Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Award of Traditional Chinese Medicine; it has strong research, teaching and clinical capabilities. It has a sound academic echelon and physicians with rich clinical experience, and possesses a relatively profound research foundation. Over the past forty years, the Department of Rheumatology, Immunology and Nephrology has used integrated Chinese-Western medicine methods to treat rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome and ankylosing spondylitis, and kidney diseases such as chronic nephritis, IgA nephropathy, nephrotic syndrome, purpura nephritis, diabetic nephropathy and chronic renal failure, achieving excellent therapeutic results. In particular, it has achieved remarkable results in reducing the infection rate and antibiotic use rate of patients on long-term glucocorticoids and other immunosuppressants by means of TCM, thereby effectively reducing patients' treatment costs.

Our center is a united and enterprising team with 54 medical and nursing staff, including 4 chief physicians, 1 associate chief physician, 6 attending physicians and 3 associate chief nurses, among whom there is 1 doctor and 9 masters, 1 provincial-level famous physician and 2 municipal-level famous physicians. The technical force is well echeloned, and the personnel quality and professional foundation are at a good level. Clinical medicine, experimental research and the dialysis center have all cultivated technical forces with a high academic level capable of undertaking specialist work. In order to improve the overall technical level of the department, in recent years many staff have been sent to high-level hospitals at home and abroad for further study. Since 2022, the Tao Xiaojuan National Inheritance Studio of the Academic Experience of Famous Veteran TCM Experts and the Tao Xiaojuan Zhejiang Provincial Inheritance Studio of the Academic Experience of Famous National TCM Masters have been established successively, attaching equal importance to Chinese and Western medicine, effectively raising the department's clinical level of integrated Chinese-Western medicine, thus enabling it to provide patients with better medical services.

Our discipline leader, Director Tao Xiaojuan, is an instructor for the fifth and sixth batches of the national inheritance of the academic experience of famous veteran TCM experts, a famous national TCM master of Zhejiang Province, a famous TCM physician of Zhejiang Province, a national model worker, and a winner of the National "May 1st" Labor Medal. Every year she receives nearly 10,000 patients from all over the country; in nearly 40 years of medical practice she has successfully treated a large number of difficult and critically ill patients, and is praised by all as having both virtue and skill. Under her leadership, the rheumatology and immunology department has formed an excellent team that "thinks of patients everywhere, takes dedication as honor, is dedicated and enterprising, and works in unity and cooperation", and has been rated as an advanced collective by the Hangzhou Municipal Health Bureau several times. Good reputation comes from quality service; we uphold the service concept of "patient-centered in all things, utmost sincerity and perfection" and always aim at the international forefront: (1) build a high-quality academic team, so that each person has a specialty and the department has its own characteristics; (2) provide superior medical and nursing quality and a warm medical environment, so that patients come full of hope and return satisfied; (3) strive for the international advanced level in scientific research.

We created the theory of "treating from the lung" and, using it as the basic prescription with modifications according to syndrome, treat systemic lupus erythematosus with integrated Chinese-Western medicine, greatly reducing the hospital infection rate and the use rate of antibacterial drugs. We created the "Scutellaria mouthwash" to improve the dry mouth symptoms of patients with Sjögren's syndrome and to prevent and treat oral infections complicating immunosuppressive therapy in various diffuse connective tissue diseases. We promote integrated Chinese-Western medicine treatment methods to reduce the hospital infection rate and antibacterial drug use rate of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, which helps improve clinical efficacy and reduce treatment costs, thereby lightening patients' economic burden. External TCM treatment of rheumatism: less medication, still pain relief. After long-term clinical research, we established the Rheumatism External Treatment Center of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which effectively improved the clinical efficacy of rheumatic diseases and reduced the amount of oral medication used by patients, thereby greatly reducing the toxic and side effects of drugs. The TCM external treatment center uses the unique TCM formulas that have proven effective in our department's long-term clinical practice to carry out wax therapy, fumigation and washing, and external application, combined with iontophoresis, far-infrared rays, ultrashort waves and microwaves, and unique manual techniques, to provide patients with syndrome differentiation-based and individualized treatment, achieving relief of symptoms and pain with less or no use of analgesics.