Cardiology

In 1959, the renowned Chinese cardiovascular expert Professor Gao De'en established the Cardiovascular Disease Specialty Group of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Medical College, marking the birth of cardiovascular medicine in Qilu. During the difficult pioneering years, Professor Gao De'en led his team to be the first in China to perform submaximal electrocardiographic bicycle exercise tests, bicycle exercise echocardiography tests, comprehensive cardiac examinations, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and among the earliest in China to introduce new technologies including rescue treatment for acute myocardial infarction, cardiac pacing and cardioversion, and vectorcardiography. In 1997, at the age of 45, Professor Zhang Yun became director of the Department of Cardiology at the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Medical University. He led the younger generation and began a new Long March of discipline development. The team was among the earliest internationally and the first in China to carry out new diagnostic technologies including stress echocardiography, Doppler echocardiography, simultaneous hemodynamic examination with cardiac catheterization and Doppler, multiplane transesophageal echocardiography, dynamic and real-time three-dimensional echocardiography, and transvenous myocardial contrast echocardiography; it was also among the earliest in China to carry out new therapeutic technologies including thrombolytic treatment for acute myocardial infarction, emergency percutaneous coronary angioplasty and stent implantation, distal catheter thrombus capture during coronary intervention, percutaneous closure of atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects, and patent ductus arteriosus, and radiofrequency and cryoablation for atrial fibrillation.

At present, the Department of Cardiology of Qilu Hospital comprises 9 subspecialties: coronary heart disease and atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, structural heart disease, arrhythmia, critical cardiac care, pulmonary vascular disease, echocardiography, and surface electrocardiography. The department consists of the outpatient clinic, inpatient wards, cardiac intensive care unit, echocardiography unit, catheterization laboratory, electrocardiography unit, Qingdao Campus, cardiovascular key laboratory, and other sections. The department has a National Key Discipline, a National Clinical Key Specialty, the Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Remodeling and Function Research of the Ministry of Education and the National Health Commission, a cultivation base for a national key laboratory jointly built by provincial and ministerial authorities, an American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) training center, a National Health Commission training base for interventional diagnosis and treatment of coronary heart disease, arrhythmias, and congenital heart disease, a National Health Commission training base and demonstration center for cardiovascular disease specialist physicians, a National Health Commission clinical pharmacology base, a Shandong University–Swedish Karolinska Institute international cooperation laboratory, an Outstanding Innovation Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shandong Provincial Cardiovascular Disease Clinical Medical Center, and the Cardiovascular Disease Interventional Treatment Quality Control Center.

The Department of Cardiology has 276 medical, technical, nursing, and research personnel, including 15 doctoral supervisors, 33 master's supervisors, 32 staff with senior professional titles, 22 with associate-senior professional titles, and 35 with intermediate professional titles. Outstanding talent in the Department of Cardiology includes 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 8 Taishan Scholars experts, 1 Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography (Honorary FASE), 2 Fellows of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), and 13 Fellows of the American College of Cardiology (FACC), making it the cardiology department with the most FACC fellows among hospitals in China. Several discipline leaders have served as vice presidents of the Asian-Pacific Society of Echocardiography, honorary presidents of the Asian Society of Cardiology, honorary presidents of the World Chinese Heart Association, vice presidents of the China branch of the International Atherosclerosis Society, and chairpersons, vice chairpersons, standing committee members, committee members, and study group leaders of specialty societies of the Chinese Medical Association. They have undertaken more than 100 national and provincial/ministerial-level projects. They have published more than 1170 SCI-indexed papers, including 14 with impact factors greater than 20 and 56 with impact factors greater than 10; 7 papers were selected as international outstanding papers by F1000 Prime. They have received 1 Second Prize of the National Natural Science Award, 3 Second Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, 3 Third Prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, 1 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Progress Award, 1 Shandong Provincial Highest Science and Technology Award, and more than 80 other provincial/ministerial awards.

The Department of Cardiovascular Medicine has successively sent more than 20 experts to the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other countries for study and advanced training, and has repeatedly hosted and participated in world, international, and domestic academic conferences, delivering conference presentations.

The department has successively invited multiple experts from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, Japan, South Korea, and other countries to the Department of Cardiology of our hospital for academic exchanges, established good cooperative relationships, and promoted academic development.