Geriatric Medicine

| Department Overview |--------------

The Department of Geriatric Medicine of Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital was established in 1970 and is one of the earliest geriatric medicine departments established in China. Fudan University-affiliated Huashan Hospital is the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases (Huashan); the Department of Geriatric Medicine is a Shanghai Municipal Clinical Key Specialty and an academically oriented clinical discipline with distinctive features and strong competitiveness. The Department currently has more than 30 clinical physicians, including 4 chief physicians and 7 associate chief physicians. It has 8 wards and more than 200 beds, sees more than 60,000 outpatient visits annually, and admits more than 3,000 inpatients each year.

| Department Features/Subspecialty Features |--------------

The Department is committed to continuously enhancing its clinical, teaching, and research capabilities in geriatric medicine. It places great importance on the training and development of its subspecialty physician team and has established a relatively rational and comprehensive disciplinary structure and academic team. It has extensive clinical experience in the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic diseases in older adults as well as difficult and severe conditions, and is particularly skilled in the comprehensive assessment, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, and health management of complex patients with multimorbidity, polypharmacy, and geriatric syndromes.

The Department continuously consolidates and improves its distinctive clinical diagnosis and treatment capabilities in geriatric medicine and advances the development of its subspecialties, with a particular focus on geriatric cardiology, geriatric neurology, geriatric gastroenterology, geriatric endocrinology, and geriatric respiratory medicine. It has established and strengthened subspecialty research teams, participates in the formulation of industry standards for diagnosis and treatment, and vigorously promotes new concepts in the diagnosis and treatment of geriatric diseases. It strives to create a first-class geriatric clinical diagnosis and treatment center in China, with comprehensive disciplines and distinctive features; build an academically oriented clinical team that is innovative and collaborative; and cultivate a high-level talent pipeline in geriatric medicine.

| Teaching |--------------

The Department of Geriatric Medicine of Huashan Hospital was among the first group of national training bases for geriatric specialist physicians and among the first group of Shanghai training bases for geriatric specialist physicians. It offers doctoral and master’s degree programs in geriatric medicine and currently has 2 doctoral supervisors and 5 master’s supervisors. Over the years, it has successfully trained many outstanding specialists in geriatric medicine. Its faculty have served as chief editors or deputy chief editors of, or contributed to, more than 30 geriatric medicine books and textbooks, including chief-editing 100 Questions on Healthy Aging and Diseases and Age-Friendly Technology from the Perspective of Social Work; deputy chief-editing the national standardized residency training textbooks Geriatric Medicine and Neurology Emergencies; and contributing to the preparation of 6 national expert consensuses on geriatric medicine.

| Research |--------------

The Department is responsible for the Shanghai Municipal Clinical Key Specialty project (Geriatric Medicine—Tengfei Program—Strong Mainstay Project), undertakes the National Key R&D Program Active Health and Aging (subproject), and participates in the key special project under the National Key R&D Program Government-to-Government International Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation (the China–UK Health and Aging Flagship Challenge Program, Research on Innovative Technologies for Maintaining and Enhancing Motor Function to Improve Older Adults’ Ability to Live Independently). It undertakes multiple research projects, including projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, key projects of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology, the Shanghai Natural Science Foundation, the Shanghai Municipal Health System Joint Tackling Project for Important Diseases, the Shanghai Municipal Talent Development Fund, and the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, among others. It has published more than 300 papers in domestic and international journals, including many high-quality papers, with more than 60 SCI papers. For ten consecutive years, it has organized the national continuing education program course New Advances in the Diagnosis, Treatment, Rehabilitation and Nursing of Common Geriatric Diseases in the Community. It filmed and produced China’s first series of short dramas for geriatric health science popularization, Aunt Kang and Her Old Neighbors. It has received the Second Prize of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology Progress Award; the First Prize in the Audio and Video Category of the Shanghai Health Science Popularization Excellence Selection and Recognition Activity; the Annual Special Award for Outstanding Public Relations Cases in Shanghai; the Grand Prize of the Fudan Shanghai Medical College Health Science Popularization Short-Video Competition; the Third Prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award; the Second Prize of the Huaxia Medical Science and Technology Award; the First Prize of the Shanghai Integrative Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Science and Technology Award; the Third Prize of the Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Award; the Second Prize of the Shanghai Teaching Achievement Award; and the First Prize of the China Geriatric Health Care Medicine Science and Technology Award, among others.

| Department Honors |--------------

The Department of Geriatric Medicine of Huashan Hospital has successively received such honors as National Youth Civilization Unit, Fudan University Women’s Civilization Post, March 8 Red-Flag Collective, Advanced Communist Youth League Organization, New Long March Commando Team, Advanced Collective for Cadre Health Care of the Health Bureau, Advanced Collective for Innovative Management of Quality Services, Shanghai Municipal Health System World Expo Civilized Post, and March 8 Red-Flag Collective of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.

| Expert Team |--------------

Previous directors: Professor Gao Gan (1988-1994), Professor He Fengfeng (1994–1997), Professor Cheng Meifen (1997–2001), Professor Yu Maohua (2001–2006), Professor Zhang Yu (2006–2024), and Professor Xu Yingjia (2024–present). Professor Xu Yingjia is the current director and academic leader of the Department of Geriatric Medicine. Deputy directors include Professors Huang Yanyan, Zhou Houguang, Zhu Min, Zhang Jiaming, and Chen Wei.

Appointments in professional societies include: committee member of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; committee member of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; vice president of the Geriatric Physicians Branch of the Shanghai Medical Doctor Association; committee member of the Gastroenterology Group of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; committee member of the Chinese Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition; committee member of the Internal Medicine Specialty Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association; deputy chair of the General Practice Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association; head of the Community Chronic Disease Management Group of the General Practice Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association; committee member and youth committee member of the Geriatrics Specialty Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association; standing committee member of the Academic Committee on Tiered Diagnosis and Treatment of the Chinese Geriatrics Society; standing committee member of the Professional Committee on Rehabilitation of Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Disorders of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; committee member of the Behavioral Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; vice president of the General Practitioners Branch of the Shanghai Medical Doctor Association; deputy chair of the Cognitive Disorders Special Committee of the Shanghai Association for the Elderly; vice president of the Geriatrics Department Construction Branch of the Chinese Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics; standing committee member of the Special Committee on the Prevention and Control of Geriatric Diseases of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association; committee member of the Geriatric Neurology Group of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association; standing committee member of the Neurological Medicine Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society; standing committee member of the Exercise and Health Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society; and standing committee member of the Geriatrics Special Committee of the Shanghai Association of Integrative Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. Led by Director Xu Yingjia, the expert team is gradually building the Department of Geriatric Medicine of Huashan Hospital into a leading geriatric clinical diagnosis and treatment center in Shanghai and a first-class center in China integrating medical care, teaching, research, and health care.