Nephrology

The Department of Nephrology of Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, is a key specialty of the Ministry of Health, a key discipline of the Ministry of Education, a key discipline of Shanghai Municipality, a key discipline of the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, and a leading medical specialty in Shanghai. It is a nationally and internationally influential training base for nephrologists, a national clinical pharmacology base, and one of the first institutions authorized to confer doctoral and master’s degrees in nephrology and host a postdoctoral research station. In the latest ranking by Fudan University’s School of Management, the department has consistently ranked among the top six nationwide and first in Shanghai. The department was established in 1965 and became independent in 1976. It is one of China’s earliest-established and best-equipped nephrology departments and has become an integrated kidney disease diagnosis and treatment center comprising clinical care, pathology, laboratory services (Institute of Nephrology), and a dialysis center. The discipline has pursued medical innovation and was the first in China to report renal tubular acidosis (1958), macroglobulinemia confirmed by renal biopsy (1992), light-chain deposition disease (1994), hereditary hyperoxaluria, China’s first confirmed case of Liddle syndrome, and a family with type III collagen nephropathy. It also developed Ruijin’s self-developed potassium supplementation prescriptions for renal hypokalemia (Potassium Citrate Formulas I/II/III). It currently focuses on primary glomerulonephritis; secondary kidney diseases, including renal involvement in Sjögren syndrome, lupus nephritis, necrotizing vasculitis, and paraproteinemia; renovascular diseases, including ischemic kidney disease and renovascular hypertension (renal artery stenosis and anatomical abnormalities of the renal artery); tubulointerstitial diseases; hereditary kidney diseases; and renal replacement therapy (hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis). It has formed a top-level nephrology system integrating clinical care, research, and teaching, characterized by expertise in renovascular diseases, hereditary/difficult-to-diagnose kidney diseases, critical kidney diseases, and standardized management of chronic kidney disease. As a national pharmacology base, the department undertakes dozens of international clinical trials of new drugs. Results of the Chinese phase III clinical trial of roxadustat for renal anemia in patients receiving maintenance dialysis and patients not undergoing dialysis were published in NEJM; it was a phase III clinical trial of a new drug in which doctors from mainland China were both first and corresponding authors. In June 2020, it issued mainland China’s first prescription for Fabrazyme, an enzyme replacement therapy drug, for a patient with Fabry disease. In March 2022, it issued mainland China’s first prescription for icodextrin peritoneal dialysis solution for a patient receiving peritoneal dialysis. Research at the department focuses on integrating and translating basic and clinical research. Its achievements have repeatedly received various national scientific research awards, including the First Prize of the Ministry of Education’s National Science and Technology Progress Award, the First Prize for Nominated Science and Technology Progress and the Second Prize for Promotion of the Ministry of Education, the Second Prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award, the First and Second Prizes of the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award, and the First Prize of the Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Award. In recent years, the department has published more than 500 articles. Based on its strong capabilities in basic research, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and clinical drug trials, it has led or participated in developing multiple guidelines and expert consensuses for the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases.