Rehabilitation Medicine Department (Rehabilitation Center)

I. Basic Information

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Rehabilitation Center) of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University developed from the original Department of Physiotherapy and has a history of more than 100 years. In 2013, it was approved as a National Clinical Key Specialty Construction Project; in 2019, it was approved as a Shandong Provincial Premium Clinical Specialty with Distinctive Features—Orthopedic Rehabilitation; and in 2020, it was approved as the Shandong Provincial Intelligent Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory. It is a modern rehabilitation medicine center integrating clinical services, teaching, and research.

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is the institution serving as the chairmanship unit of the 11th Committee and the standing-committee unit of the 13th Committee of the Chinese Medical Association’s Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; a vice-chairmanship unit of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; a participating institution in projects of the National Key R&D Program; the affiliated institution of the Shandong Provincial Quality Control Center; and the leading institution of the Shandong Provincial Rehabilitation Medicine Specialty Alliance. The Department is a national-level demonstration center for standardized training of rehabilitation physicians and an authorized site for master’s and doctoral degrees in Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy at Shandong University. It is a standardized training base for orthopedic rehabilitation technology and neurological rehabilitation technology of the Chinese Medical Association’s Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and a training base for rehabilitation specialist nurses of the Chinese Nursing Association. It is also a designated hospital for rehabilitation physician training in Shandong Province, a training base for rehabilitation therapists in Shandong Province, and a training base for rehabilitation nurses in Shandong Province, among others.

In recent years, the Department has achieved outstanding results in clinical care, research, and teaching. Professor Yue Shouwei has served as chief editor of 4 national-level planned textbooks and associate editor of 1. He was responsible for drafting the clinical pathways for 20 common diseases in rehabilitation medicine issued by the National Health Commission, and led the compilation of the Guidelines for Low Back Pain Rehabilitation issued by the Chinese Medical Association’s Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The Department has compiled and translated nearly 20 textbooks and monographs of various types, undertaken rehabilitation medicine teaching for Shandong University, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Binzhou Medical University, and other institutions, undertaken more than 20 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, more than 10 provincial- and ministerial-level projects, and 1 clinical trial project, published more than 90 SCI papers and more than 100 Chinese core-journal papers, and received approval for nearly 30 national patents.

II. Distinctive Diagnostic and Treatment Features

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine currently has the Central Campus outpatient department, the Integrated Rehabilitation Department, and the Critical Care Rehabilitation Ward, as well as the Neurological Rehabilitation Ward and Orthopedic Rehabilitation Ward at the East Campus, with a total of 113 beds and a total area of more than 2,000 m².

The outpatient department is divided into the lumbar traction room, exercise/occupational therapy room, cardiopulmonary and speech therapy room, and physical therapy room, and mainly serves patients with various acute and chronic pain conditions and functional impairments;

The Integrated Rehabilitation Department provides bedside rehabilitation for patients in all clinical departments of the hospital. It assigns rehabilitation physicians and therapists to provide ultra-early and perioperative professional rehabilitation medical services for patients in the intensive care unit, Department of Neurology, Department of Orthopedics, Department of Gynecology, and other departments, while also carrying out standardized systematic rehabilitation treatment for diseases in the subacute phase.

The Neurological Rehabilitation Ward is dedicated to the rehabilitation of impairments of the limbs, swallowing, respiration, cognition, speech, and other functions. It has developed advanced technologies including CT-, electromyography-, and ultrasound-guided botulinum toxin injection into the limbs and cricopharyngeal muscles, near-infrared and electroencephalographic assessment technologies, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

The Orthopedic Rehabilitation Ward is dedicated to the rehabilitation treatment of pain, limb dysfunction, and urinary and bowel dysfunction caused by osteoarticular diseases and spinal cord injury. It carries out advanced diagnostic and treatment technologies including sacral hiatus injection, rapid lumbar traction, neural radiofrequency modulation therapy, joint pain injection therapy, urodynamic testing, balloon dilation and botulinum toxin injection of the external urethral sphincter, pelvic floor rehabilitation, and gait analysis.

The Critical Care Rehabilitation Ward mainly undertakes systematic rehabilitation treatment for patients with severe brain injury, multiple trauma, and diseases in the early stage accompanied by complex comorbidities. It has developed distinctive diagnostic and treatment technologies including noninvasive brain modulation to promote arousal, botulinum toxin injection into the salivary glands, swallowing laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy and airway-clearance technologies, and rehabilitation for gastrointestinal dysfunction.

The Department is equipped with a large number of advanced treatment devices, such as upper- and lower-limb rehabilitation robots, a three-dimensional motion capture and analysis system, the Ottobock prosthesis and orthosis fabrication system, a human–machine interaction training system, a near-infrared brain function assessment system, electroencephalography, electromyography, transcranial magnetic stimulation, a radiofrequency temperature-controlled thermocoagulator, and an extracorporeal shock wave therapy system.

In the field of orthopedic rehabilitation, Professor Yue Shouwei has devoted more than 30 years to research on the pathogenesis and treatment mechanisms of low back pain, and his research is at the leading national level. In this field, multiple National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and Shandong Provincial Key R&D Program grants have been approved. Using sectional anatomy techniques, he has guided clinical rapid traction treatment and sacral hiatus injection, developed distinctive treatments, and relieved the suffering of low back pain for tens of thousands of people. He served as chief editor of 3 editions of Non-surgical Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation, which have been printed tens of thousands of times, and as chief editor of How to Manage Cervical and Low Back Pain Rehabilitation, part of the Xiangyue Health Encyclopedia series published by the People’s Medical Publishing House, providing the public with practical knowledge of disease prevention and rehabilitation. The team’s research achievements have received 1 first prize of the Shandong Provincial Technological Invention Award, 2 second prizes of the Science and Technology Progress Award, and 3 third prizes.

The distinctive diagnostic and treatment programs offered include:

1. Intelligent rehabilitation technologies: robotic intelligent rehabilitation technology, brain function assessment and targeted modulation technology to promote arousal, pelvic floor function assessment and modulation technology, and surface electromyography/three-dimensional gait analysis technology;

2. Distinctive assessment and treatment technologies: electronic laryngoscopic swallowing function assessment technology, urodynamic testing technology, sacral hiatus injection technology, multidirectional rapid lumbar traction technology, balloon dilation technology for the cricopharyngeal muscle and external urethral sphincter, botulinum toxin injection into spastic muscles, sphincters, salivary glands, and other sites, joint pain injection treatment technology, peripheral nerve block technology, neural radiofrequency modulation technology, and electronic bronchoscopy examination and treatment technology;

3. Rehabilitation treatment and distinctive physiotherapy technologies: standardized rehabilitation technology for hemiplegia/paraplegia, speech/cardiopulmonary/gastrointestinal rehabilitation technologies; group occupational therapy technology; customized orthosis fitting; rehabilitation treatment technologies for Parkinson’s disease/scoliosis/vertigo; shock wave therapy, high-energy laser therapy, resonant spark induction electrotherapy, aconite iontophoresis, and others.

4. Traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation technologies: body acupuncture, scalp acupuncture, electroacupuncture, cupping, fire acupuncture, bloodletting therapy, auricular acupuncture, acupoint injection, acupoint application, moxibustion over an insulating substance, and others.

III. Expert Team

The Department currently has 18 physicians, 2 full-time postdoctoral fellows, 53 therapists, 37 nurses, and 27 postgraduate students at master’s level or above; it currently has 2 doctoral supervisors and 2 master’s supervisors.

Academic leader Yue Shouwei is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and director of the Shandong University Research Center for Intelligent Rehabilitation Equipment Technology. He serves as Chair of the 11th Committee of the Chinese Medical Association’s Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, and Executive Vice President of the Shandong Association of Rehabilitation Medicine. He is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. He has been engaged in rehabilitation medicine teaching for more than 30 years and has trained more than 60 doctoral and master’s students. In 2012, he received the title of National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker from the China Association for Science and Technology. Eight National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and 1 Shandong Provincial Key R&D project have been approved under his leadership. The team has received 1 first prize of the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Invention Award, 2 second prizes of the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, and 3 third prizes. He has published more than 70 SCI-indexed papers and more than 40 Chinese core-journal papers and holds 5 invention patents. He has served as chief editor of 4 national-level planned textbooks: the resident-training textbook Rehabilitation Medicine, the graduate textbook Rehabilitation Medicine, the undergraduate textbook Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, and the textbook Rehabilitation Nursing; as associate editor of 1 book; and as chief editor/translator of 11 monographs.

Department Director Wang Yonghui is a professor, doctoral supervisor, Distinguished Expert of the Taishan Scholars Program, Qilu Leading Talent in Health and Wellness, an outstanding young and middle-aged expert of Shandong University (the source title wording is unclear), an Outstanding Clinical Teacher of the First Clinical Medical College of Shandong University, and Director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Physical Therapy of Qilu Medical College, Shandong University. He serves as a standing committee member and Deputy Head of the Neurological Rehabilitation Group of the Chinese Medical Association’s Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; a standing committee member of the Rehabilitation Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association; Deputy Chair of the Professional Committee of Brain–Computer Interfaces and Rehabilitation of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; a standing committee member of the Professional Committees of Rehabilitation Assessment and Electrodiagnosis of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; Chair of the Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the Shandong Medical Association; Deputy Chair of the Rehabilitation Medicine Physicians Branch and Deputy Chair of the Professional Committee of Neurorepair of the Shandong Medical Doctor Association; Chair of the Cerebrovascular Disease Rehabilitation Branch of the Shandong Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; Chair of the Expert Committee of the Shandong Provincial Rehabilitation Medicine Quality Control Center; and a member of the expert group for designated hospitals for rehabilitation treatment technology in Shandong Province, among other positions. He has trained more than 30 doctoral and master’s students. He has led 1 project of the National Key R&D Program, 6 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, 2 Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation projects, and 1 clinical trial project. As the first recipient, he has received 1 second prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, 1 second prize and 1 third prize of the Shandong Medical Science and Technology Award, and a second prize of the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award as the third-ranked recipient. He has published more than 20 SCI-indexed papers and more than 30 Chinese core-journal papers and holds 3 invention patents. He has participated in the formulation of 1 national standard, 2 group standards, and 4 expert consensuses, among others.