Gastroenterology

The Department of Gastroenterology of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University is a traditional advantageous discipline in Shandong Province. It was founded in the 1960s by Professor Zhao Xianchun, a nationally renowned gastroenterology expert, and has since led medical care, teaching, and research in gastroenterology in Shandong, making outstanding contributions to the promotion of digestive endoscopy and abdominal ultrasound and to comprehensive prevention and treatment of peptic ulcers and malignant digestive-system tumors. Led in recent years by Professor Li Yanqing, an academic leader and Taishan Scholar Climbing Program expert, it has become one of the first national clinical key construction specialties and includes the Shandong Digestive Endoscopy Quality-Control Center, the Shandong Inflammatory Bowel Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Quality-Control Evaluation Center, a health-medical big-data and technology-innovation alliance, an engineering laboratory for precise robotic diagnosis and treatment of digestive-tract tumors, and a key laboratory for translational medicine of gastrointestinal diseases. Professor Li Yanqing serves as deputy chairperson of the Chinese Medical Association Digestive Diseases Branch, vice president of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association Endoscopists Branch, and deputy editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Gastroenterology. The department has three subspecialties: gastroenterology, digestive endoscopy, and hepatology. It has 61 staff, including 5 doctoral supervisors, 11 master's supervisors, 13 professors, and 13 associate professors; most have overseas doctoral degrees or study experience. Its work focuses on endoscopic minimally invasive diagnosis and treatment, functional gastrointestinal diseases, liver diseases, digestive-tract tumors, and interventional treatment. It is an international pioneer in confocal laser endomicroscopy and developed the internationally recognized ‘Qilu Standard’ for diagnosing gastric precancerous lesions. Endoscopic ultrasound is among the most widely used and experienced in China, and the department was an early interventional-diagnosis team. It has conducted pioneering capsule endoscopy and single-balloon enteroscopy, AI endoscopic-image diagnosis, intelligent endoscopic surgical-robot research, functional gastrointestinal and gastrointestinal-motility testing, 24-hour pH-impedance monitoring, high-resolution manometry, biofeedback therapy, and intestinal microbiota research. It hosts a national gastrointestinal-motility research and training center and China's first microbiota research and diagnosis center. It has undertaken 2 National Key R&D Program projects, 2 Ministry of Health clinical key projects, 1 National Natural Science Foundation key project, 21 general and young NSFC projects, 2 Shandong major science-and-technology projects, and more than 20 other provincial/ministerial projects; published 120 SCI papers and more than 10 academic monographs; and received 3 Shandong Science and Technology Progress first prizes and 5 provincial/ministerial second prizes.