Anaesthesiology

2024: A new era, a new starting point—Qilu Anesthesiology sets sail again!

2024 is a pivotal year for Shandong University Qilu Hospital as it establishes a National Regional Medical Center, a National Clinical Medical Center, and a National Medical Center for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Rehabilitation of Difficult, Acute and Critical Illnesses. With the care and support of the hospital leadership, the new leadership team of the Department of Anesthesiology will earnestly study the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, uphold the principles of “strengthening the hospital through Party building, establishing the hospital through medical care, revitalizing the hospital through talent, strengthening the hospital through research, and governing the hospital according to law,” work together with dedication and unity, and restore the former glory of East Qilu Anesthesiology.

The Department of Anesthesiology of Shandong University Qilu Hospital was established in 1954 by Professor Emeritus Ying Shida, a renowned Chinese expert in anesthesiology and the founder of anesthesiology in Shandong Province, who developed it throughout his career. Under the successive leadership of Directors Ying Shida, Zhang Yuzhi, Pan Xiaojun, Sun Hongying, Lei Weifu, Zhang Li, Yu Jingui, and Qi Feng (currently overseeing the department), and through the efforts of several generations of anesthesiologists, the department has now developed into a key discipline of anesthesiology in Shandong Province, a national key residency-training base, a National Comfortable Medical Care Center, a national key specialty in pain, and an Anesthesia Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Special and Difficult Diseases.

The Department of Anesthesiology currently has 126 active employees, including 106 anesthesiologists and 27 anesthesia nursing staff. There are 12 chief physicians, 22 associate chief physicians, and 50 attending physicians; more than one-third hold doctoral degrees, 4 postdoctoral researchers are currently in training, 4 staff members are studying or receiving further training abroad, and more than 90% hold postgraduate degrees. There are 8 anesthesia nurses with the supervisor rank and 13 nurses with the nurse rank, most of whom have undergraduate degrees. As a clinical secondary discipline, the Department of Anesthesiology is responsible for clinical anesthesia throughout the hospital, emergency resuscitation, anesthesia for painless diagnosis and treatment, acute postoperative pain, chronic painful diseases, and anesthetic treatment for certain refractory diseases.

Clinical anesthesia: Qilu Hospital currently has 113 operating rooms in multiple surgical areas. Anesthesia Division I is responsible for clinical anesthesia in 47 operating rooms in Huamei Building, 2 operating rooms in Jizhong Building, and 4 operating rooms in the East Campus, as well as outpatient anesthesia services such as painless gastrointestinal endoscopy. Anesthesia Division II is mainly responsible for clinical anesthesia in the 17 operating rooms of the Women’s and Children’s Building and labor analgesia. Anesthesia Division III is mainly responsible for anesthesia outpatient assessment for the 8 operating rooms of the Day Surgery Center, as well as day-surgery and ward services. Anesthesia Division IV is mainly responsible for emergency and interventional anesthesia in 6 operating rooms of Qilu Building, and anesthesia assessment and painless diagnosis and treatment in the 29 procedure rooms of the Painless Endoscopy Center. In 2021, approximately 110,000 surgical anesthesia cases were completed; in 2022, the total number of surgical anesthesia cases was 136,000; in 2023, it was 176,000; and anesthesia for painless gastrointestinal endoscopy and interventional procedures accounted for approximately 40,000–50,000 cases. With the opening of Qilu Hospital’s Emergency Comprehensive Building, surgical anesthesia and painless diagnosis and treatment will increase substantially. In 2021, the hospital awarded the Department of Anesthesiology the title of “Best Collaborative Unit.” In 2022, because Qilu Hospital achieved an A++ result in the “national examination” (CMI ranking sixth nationwide), the department was awarded the title of “Advanced Collective for Promoting High-Quality Hospital Development.” In 2023, the department helped Qilu Hospital achieve high-quality development; its result in the national examination for tertiary public hospitals ranked “fifth nationwide,” a historic high, and the hospital awarded the Department of Anesthesiology the title of “Best Collaborative Unit”!

Development of anesthesia subspecialties: The Department of Anesthesiology of Qilu Hospital has the most complete team of anesthesia subspecialties in the province. These include cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, neurosurgery, pediatric surgery, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, otolaryngology and oral medicine, acute pain/APS, the Day Surgery Center, the Emergency Surgery Center, the Painless Diagnosis and Treatment Center, and anesthesia subspecialty teams for visceral treatment of difficult diseases. Each subspecialty is led by a director and deputy director, who work to make every subspecialty more refined, specialized, and strong. Specialty features: innovative research has been conducted in the precise control of inhalational anesthesia, precise target-controlled infusion of intravenous anesthesia, specialized pediatric anesthesia training, prevention and control of intraoperative hypothermia, rescue of intraoperative acute pulmonary embolism, airway management with bronchial blockers in thoracic surgery, difficult-airway management and equipment development, ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, and development of software for monitoring anesthetic depth. These efforts are at the domestic leading level, and some have reached internationally advanced or leading levels. The department was the first in the province to establish a post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and founded the Anesthesia Nursing Professional Committee of the Shandong Nursing Association; Nurse-in-Charge Liu Xin served as its first chairperson. In addition, Qilu Anesthesiology has played a leading role in comfortable medical care in anesthesia for obesity and bariatric surgery (China’s heaviest person, weighing 668 jin), anesthesia for surgery in very elderly patients with difficult comorbid diseases, one-lung ventilation with tracheal intubation and blocker tubes, various ultrasound-guided nerve blocks, transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), and other areas.

Teaching and research: As a national key base for anesthesiology residency training, the department currently has 120 residents in training. The Department of Anesthesiology also undertakes teaching for Qilu Medical College of Shandong University, while providing instruction for anesthesia interns and visiting anesthesiologists from various cities and prefectures. The department currently has 3 doctoral supervisors and 8 master’s supervisors. In recent years, it has trained more than 150 doctoral and master’s students, supplying the medical system throughout the province with a large number of outstanding anesthesiology professionals. It has obtained 13 national research grants and more than 20 provincial research grants, and has received more than 20 provincial- and ministerial-level research awards. Numerous papers have been published in core journals, including more than 170 indexed by SCI, and faculty members have served as chief editors or co-editors of multiple academic works. Many staff members serve in key positions in national and provincial anesthesiology societies, including chairpersons, deputy chairpersons, standing committee members, academic group leaders, and committee members. They serve as reviewers for the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education’s Research Start-up Fund for Returned Overseas Scholars, and provincial and municipal natural science funds; as specially appointed reviewers of scientific papers for the Ministry of Education; and as correspondence reviewers for China Science and Technology Paper Online. Many also serve as editorial board members, evaluators, and peer reviewers for important domestic and international academic journals.

Departmental features: In the 1960s, ether anesthesia; in the 1970s and 1980s, intravenous procaine general anesthesia, balanced intravenous–inhalational anesthesia, traditional Chinese medicine anesthesia, acupuncture-assisted anesthesia, and plasma exchange for acute transfusion-induced hemolysis all produced outstanding results. In the early 1990s, deep hypothermic anesthesia enabled the heart to tolerate hypoxia for more than 30 minutes during cardiac arrest, compared with 8 minutes under traditional hypothermia, representing a breakthrough in cerebral protection. Since 2000, Professor Wu Qi has developed China’s first target-controlled infusion pump; the achievement was transferred for commercialization and promoted in more than 1,000 hospitals nationwide. Products for separate monitoring of anesthetic depth, sedation, and analgesia are expected to enter the market soon. In 2015, Professor Qi Feng received the “Best Pain Mechanism Award” for research presented at the meeting of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), winning international recognition for Chinese anesthesiologists. Drawing on more than 30 years of clinical experience, he proposed the theory of “Qidian Medicine”—the concept that latent myofascial trigger points and Qidian chronic inflammation cause disease—and guided clinical practice with Qidian precise injection, anti-inflammatory and neuromodulatory treatment. This approach has achieved relatively satisfactory results in treating certain stubborn or refractory diseases and has opened up new theories, approaches, and methods for treating diseases through anesthesiology.

In response to the call from multiple national ministries and commissions to expand the scope of anesthesia services, Qilu Hospital opened the first anesthesia-treatment clinic in Shandong Province and the second of its kind in China in 2019. In the same year, the Professional Committee of Anesthesia Treatment of the Shandong Research Hospitals Association was established, with Professor Qi Feng as chairperson. It was the first such academic committee related to anesthesia treatment among academic societies at all levels in Shandong Province and in China. In 2021, the department successfully held the Shandong Academic Conference on Anesthesia Treatment and the first National Training Course on Anesthesia Treatment. Official media also provided positive coverage, and visits reached more than 2.4 million (against more than 200,000 anesthesiologists nationwide), generating a tremendous social response. As a new branch of anesthesiology, anesthesia treatment at Qilu Hospital is at the forefront nationwide. At the same time, multiple Qilu Anesthesiology Summit Forums have been held, greatly enhancing the discipline’s influence and ranking.

By deeply implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and working to realize the grand strategies of “Healthy Shandong” and “Healthy China,” under the care and support of leaders at all levels of the hospital and the leadership of the department’s team, all members of Qilu Anesthesiology will continue to uphold the hospital motto “Let virtue guide medicine and pursue excellence in professional skill,” strengthen departmental culture, put people first, stay grounded, and have the courage to innovate; pursue excellence and seize every moment. Taking the hospital’s establishment of the “three centers and one pilot” as an opportunity, we will continue to maintain the pace that “the opening is the decisive battle, and the start is the sprint,” strive for new and greater breakthroughs in medical care, teaching, research, discipline building, and talent development, and comprehensively support Qilu Hospital’s extraordinary, leapfrog, high-quality development!

2024: A new era, a new starting point—Qilu Anesthesiology sets sail again!

Department of Anesthesiology, Shandong University Qilu Hospital

2024-03-01