Neonatology

Department of Neonatology

The Department of Neonatology was established in 1991, and its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was established in 2015. The department currently has a medical team with a high level of professional competence, outstanding technical expertise, and a well-structured complement of personnel. It has 1 chief physician, 4 deputy chief physicians, 10 attending physicians, 13 resident physicians, and more than 40 professional nurses. The department is equipped with standard instruments and equipment, including neonatal ventilators, high-end incubators for premature infants, intelligent radiant warmer tables for resuscitation, amplitude-integrated electroencephalography equipment, near-infrared spectroscopy analyzers, bedside ultrasound machines, and other facilities. These enable critically ill neonates, premature infants, very-low-birth-weight infants, and even extremely-low-birth-weight infants to receive timely, appropriate, and effective treatment. In particular, for the resuscitation of neonates with asphyxia, the department regularly organizes practical resuscitation drills, reducing the occurrence of asphyxia-related complications.

The department has established a comprehensive neonatal treatment and management system with the distinctive features of a maternity hospital. It currently admits approximately 3,000 patients each year, and the success rate for rescuing critically ill cases is above 95%. The Department of Neonatology has also established and improved a rooming-in ward-round system. Pediatricians perform routine examinations of newborns in the mother-and-infant rooming-in unit every day, promptly identifying problems and providing early diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, medical and nursing staff provide new mothers with comprehensive, evidence-based guidance on newborn feeding and care and promote correct parenting concepts. For high-risk infants, the department provides regular post-discharge outpatient follow-up and early intervention. It participates in prenatal multidisciplinary consultations for fetal diseases, providing technical support and assurance for integrated, seamless treatment spanning the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods.

Our department has always placed patient treatment first and incorporated “safety, quality, and quality control” into its daily work. During the past four years, it has received more than 100 pennants presented by parents and has been named an advanced collective of the hospital on multiple occasions. It has successively received the titles of Women’s Civilization Post of Fudan University, Youth Civilization Unit of Fudan University, and March 8 Red-Flag Collective of the Shanghai Health and Medical Care System. The Party branch to which the Department of Neonatology belongs has been named an advanced Party branch of the hospital.

Department Features

Our department has established and implemented an integrated delivery-room–NICU treatment system; established an intensive care unit and life-support technologies; adopted a family-participatory care model and implemented measures to promote breastfeeding; applied a departmental quality-control board for quality control of clinical indicators; and established a follow-up clinic for high-risk infants with early intervention.

Teaching and Training

Each year, the department holds the national continuing education course “Emergency Care Study Course for Critically Ill Newborns in the Delivery Room.” The Neonatology Subforum of the Red House Forum is held once every two years.

Department members have spoken several times at international and domestic academic conferences.

One physician participated in a training program of the China–Canada Perinatal Cooperation Network.

The department undertakes resident physician training for the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital, has one supervisor for master’s students, and has trained several master’s graduate students in neonatology.

Several physicians and nurses have successively gone elsewhere for further training in neonatology, ultrasonography, rehabilitation, and other specialties.

The department head holds academic positions including member of the Professional Committee of Premature Infants of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, standing committee member of the Professional Committee of Infant and Young Child Mental Health of the China Maternal and Child Health Research Association, and member of the Neonatology Physician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, among others.

Research

The department has one Youth Fund project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (completed), one project of the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission (pending completion), and one subproject of a key weak-area project of the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission (not yet completed). During the past five years, it has published more than 10 SCI papers and more than 30 papers in Chinese.

Department Experts