Critical Care Medicine

In 1999, Professor Hang Yannan, then Director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Renji Hospital, led the establishment of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). After fifteen years of development, the department made substantial progress in medical care, education, research, and discipline development, and the Department of Critical Care Medicine was formally established in 2014. Today, the Department of Critical Care Medicine of Renji Hospital has developed into a first-level clinical discipline with distinctive characteristics, a well-structured talent echelon, and comprehensive development in medical care, education, and research. The department currently has 39 practicing physicians, including 19 doctors, 11 physicians with senior professional titles, 2 doctoral supervisors, and 2 master's supervisors. The department has established a multidisciplinary joint diagnosis and treatment team, including respiratory therapists and rehabilitation therapists, with its work covering Renji Hospital’s four campuses: East, West, South, and Hangzhou Bay. In February 2024, following completion of the Academic Building at Renji Hospital’s East Campus, the ICU Center of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, planned with 102 beds, was officially completed and opened. As the core platform for treating critically ill patients at Renji Hospital, the department has developed a subspecialty structure centered on “sepsis diagnosis and treatment and multiple-organ function support.” It has conducted in-depth work and achieved positive results in the subspecialties of “sepsis and severe infection,” “ARDS and respiratory failure,” “organ-function protection and support,” and “treatment of critically ill pregnant and postpartum women.” The department admits more than 4,000 critically ill patients of various types annually. By routinely using bedside ultrasonography and transthoracic electrical impedance tomography (EIT) titration to guide mechanical ventilation, prone-position ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), continuous blood purification (CPB), and other important-organ function-support technologies, it has achieved a sepsis treatment success rate of as high as 85%, reaching a world-class level. As an important platform for the perioperative treatment of patients with severe liver disease, the department implements comprehensive perioperative treatment strategies based on artificial liver technology; 70% of patients successfully undergo liver transplantation, and the success rate of liver transplantation in patients with severe hepatic insufficiency exceeds 80%. As one of Shanghai’s centers for the treatment of critically ill pregnant and postpartum women, the department admits 40% of Shanghai’s critically ill pregnant and postpartum women each year and achieves a rescue success rate as high as 99.5%. It has made outstanding contributions to increasing the citywide treatment success rate for critically ill pregnant and postpartum women and reducing maternal mortality, and has successively received honors including Advanced Collective in Shanghai’s Fight Against the COVID-19 Pandemic and Advanced Primary-Level Party Organization of Shanghai. The department places great emphasis on the cultivation and development of its talent echelon. For many years, it has continuously undertaken the theoretical teaching and clinical internship supervision of compulsory and elective courses, including General Surgery, Critical Care Medicine, and Critical Hemodynamic Management and Organ Function Support, for undergraduate and graduate medical students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the China-Canada Ottawa Joint Medical College. It participated in compiling the fourth-round standardized national textbook for the anesthesia specialty in institutions of higher education, Critical Care Medicine, as well as national-level textbooks such as Guidance for the National Advanced Health Professional and Technical Qualification Examination—Critical Care Medicine. National-level continuing education courses are held regularly. More than 30 graduate students have been trained, and some have received honors such as Outstanding Graduates of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2018, the department became a national training base for critical care medicine specialists; in 2020, it became a national standardized residency training base for critical care medicine. It currently has 6 specialist-training mentors and 10 residency-training mentors. Several department members have successively received funding from talent programs including the Shanghai Outstanding Young Medical Talent Training Support Program, the Pujiang Program, and Shanghai Science and Technology Rising Stars (Yangfan Special Program). In scientific research, the department has long been committed to research on sepsis and ARDS, pulmonary fibrosis, organ-function protection and support, severe infection, and other areas. In recent years, it has presided over a total of 12 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and 18 provincial, municipal, and local key research projects, establishing a systematic and mature research framework and generating positive research outcomes. In recent years, department members have published more than 60 SCI papers as first or corresponding authors, obtained more than 10 authorized national invention or utility-model patents, and participated in compiling nearly 10 clinical expert consensuses. Some research findings have successively been published in leading international journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Intensive Care Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and Critical Care. They were also prominently recommended for publication by the US journal Laboratory Investigation through a cover article and editorial commentary, among other formats, giving the department considerable academic influence in critical care. The department has established strategic cooperative relationships with leading academic institutions in China and abroad and built a regional platform for cooperation and exchange. In recent years, it has successively sent more than 10 outstanding young and middle-aged professionals to leading medical institutions and top university laboratories in Europe, the United States, Hong Kong, China, and elsewhere for visiting study. More than 40 person-times have subsequently been invited to participate in academic exchanges at leading domestic and international academic conferences through keynote presentations and other formats. This has expanded the department’s international and regional professional academic influence and effectively advanced its internationalization. At the same time, the department’s open and shared learning philosophy has attracted many physicians from primary hospitals in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta to undertake further training, promoting exchange and progress among critical care professionals nationwide.