Gastroenterology

The Department of Gastroenterology was established as an independent discipline in 1990. The successive directors and deputy directors in the 1990s were Professors Wu Jingxin, Zhao Jingtao, and Qu Hanting. In the late 1990s, the department recruited the young academic elite, Dr. Liu Yulan. Professor Liu served as Deputy Director of the Department of Gastroenterology from 1996 to 1998, Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Gastroenterology and Deputy Director of the Institute of Liver Diseases from 1998 to 2001, and became Director of the Department of Gastroenterology after 2001. She became the third academic leader in the history of the discipline's development and has served as Vice President for Research of People's Hospital since 2006. At the beginning of the 21st century, under the leadership of Director Liu Yulan, the discipline entered a period of rapid development.

Through the efforts of three generations, the Department of Gastroenterology now has inpatient wards, outpatient services (including specialist clinics for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and gastroesophageal reflux disease), an endoscopy center, a gastrointestinal motility laboratory, an ultrasound examination room, and laboratories, making it a department with strong comprehensive capabilities integrating clinical care, research, and teaching. The Department of Gastroenterology is currently a specialist physician training base of the National Health and Family Planning Commission; a clinical drug trial institution of the National Medical Products Administration; and a doctoral program in internal medicine.

Over the years, the discipline of gastroenterology has developed in a balanced manner in medical care, education, and research, establishing its direction of development; at the same time, it has strengthened the training of young medical and nursing staff and established a comprehensive talent pipeline. There are currently 27 physicians, including 4 senior-level physicians, 10 associate senior-level physicians, 4 attending physicians, and 9 resident physicians, the vast majority of whom hold doctoral degrees; 31 nurses; and 2 technicians.

Through the inheritance of several generations, the Department of Gastroenterology is currently equipped not only with various advanced electronic gastroscopes and colonoscopes, abdominal ultrasonography, gastrointestinal motility testing, and other examination and treatment equipment, but has also entered a stable and rapidly developing track in the diagnosis and treatment of clinical diseases, forming distinctive characteristics of the discipline. For many years, the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and chronic liver disease have consistently been the areas of strength in the clinical and research development of the Department of Gastroenterology. The department has extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of refractory inflammatory bowel disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, and difficult and severe liver diseases. Rapid progress has also been made in the early diagnosis and endoscopic treatment of esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colon cancer, forming a well-established clinical diagnosis and treatment platform with comprehensive talent development and close integration with scientific research. The Department of Gastroenterology has established standardized systems for the diagnosis and treatment of not only common and frequently occurring diseases, but is also a center for the diagnosis and treatment of difficult diseases.

Over the past 10-plus years, under the leadership of Professor Liu Yulan, the research level of the Department of Gastroenterology has improved year by year. Each research direction has a group of physicians engaged in research closely integrating clinical and basic science, forming a strong atmosphere of teamwork and shared development. The department has received support from dozens of national and provincial- or ministerial-level research grants; published more than 100 research papers; and served as chief editor of multiple professional books. In recent years, international exchanges have also increased significantly. More than 10 physicians and nurses have successively traveled to the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, and other places to study research and clinical skills in liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and endoscopic treatment. At the same time, scholars from the United States, Germany, Japan, Australia, and other countries come every year to attend conferences and give lectures. The annual Forums on the Intestinal Mucosal Barrier and Related Diseases and on Immune-Mediated Digestive System Diseases attract large numbers of physicians from across the country to attend and learn, receive high praise from participants, expand the influence of the discipline, and demonstrate its leading position in this field.

The development of the teaching team is also a distinctive feature of the development of the discipline of gastroenterology. A large number of young and middle-aged physicians and nurses have received various levels of Outstanding Teacher awards from Beijing Municipality, Peking University, Peking University Health Science Center, and People's Hospital; many articles and books on educational reform have also been published.