Ultrasound Medicine

The Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment of Shandong Provincial Hospital is the earliest-established comprehensive ultrasound diagnosis and treatment center in our province, a provincial key specialty, the leading unit of the Ultrasound Branches of the Shandong Medical Association and the Shandong Medical Doctor Association, the host institution of the Shandong Society of Ultrasound in Medicine and Engineering, and a national standardized residency training base for the specialty of ultrasound diagnosis. Established in the 1980s, the department has, after decades of development, become a first-class department within the province and a nationally renowned modern comprehensive department integrating ultrasound diagnosis and treatment, teaching, and research. Under the unified planning of the hospital group, the department now has two major ultrasound diagnosis and treatment centers, the Central Campus and the East Campus, undertaking a large amount of diagnostic and treatment work for the hospital’s clinical departments. The Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment Center of the East Campus officially opened in 2009; its scale has developed rapidly and its strength has continued to grow. The two campuses jointly have dozens of ultrasound diagnostic instruments, all of which are high-end ultrasound diagnostic devices in the current professional field. A multidisciplinary diagnostic and treatment structure has now been formed, covering cardiology, abdominal, obstetric and gynecological, superficial-organ, vascular, interventional, and other specialties. Its diagnostic level is at the forefront domestically; the annual number of examinations reaches hundreds of thousands, ranking first in the province; and the workload of interventional ultrasound treatment is among the highest in the province. Its services benefit the entire province and extend to surrounding provinces and cities. As an important ultrasound medicine diagnosis, treatment, and teaching base in Shandong Province, the Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment undertakes clinical internship teaching for undergraduate and postgraduate students from medical schools and trains large numbers of visiting trainees and interns every year.

The Ultrasound Diagnosis Research Laboratory of the Shandong Institute of Medical Imaging was established in 1981 and was one of the earliest departments in China to possess two-dimensional real-time sectional ultrasound (B-mode ultrasound) equipment. Rooted in the broader imaging discipline of the Shandong Institute of Medical Imaging, it has consistently adhered to the development strategy of “first-class talent, first-class technology, first-class equipment, and first-class service.” After 30 years of unremitting effort, it has now developed into an ultrasound department integrating clinical work, research, and teaching. It has a large number of experts and outstanding young and middle-aged physicians; all specialty disciplines have advanced in parallel and developed comprehensively, and it holds an advantageous and leading position in peripheral vascular, musculoskeletal, joint, neurological, and other specialties.

At the end of March 2021, in accordance with the requirements of the provincial government’s institutional reform and under the hospital’s overall planning, the Institute of Medical Imaging completed its merger into Shandong Provincial Hospital, and the Ultrasound Diagnosis Research Laboratory of the Institute of Medical Imaging was wholly merged into the Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment of Shandong Provincial Hospital. The integrated ultrasound department has 166 medical and nursing staff, including 92 doctors and 74 nursing and technical staff. Among them are 23 chief physicians, 19 deputy chief physicians, and 50 attending physicians; 28 hold doctoral degrees, 41 hold master’s degrees, and 9 hold bachelor’s degrees, forming a high-level talent echelon with distinctive subspecialties. The department’s teaching team consists of the heads of the study groups and the backbone members of each specialty group. The Central Campus has a demonstration classroom accommodating more than 70 people, enabling synchronized video and integrated teaching through networking with the classroom at the East Campus and creating an optimal standardized training base. At present, the department organizes 4 national continuing education programs, holds 2 provincial ultrasound medicine seminars each year, undertakes 5 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and, in recent years, 14 provincial projects, and has published 90 academic papers, of which 47 are indexed by SCI. We will join forces, combine our strengths, fully implement the revitalization strategy of Shandong Provincial Hospital, and build a new landscape for ultrasound at Shandong Provincial Hospital.

Under the strong leadership of the hospital, the Department of Ultrasound Diagnosis and Treatment will remain true to its original aspiration, keep its mission firmly in mind, and bravely shoulder its responsibilities. It will comprehensively advance and develop medical care, teaching, and research, while also building more and better platforms for academic exchange and strengthening exchange and learning in an all-round manner and across multiple specialties with ultrasound colleagues at the national, provincial, and prefectural and municipal levels, making efforts to take the development of ultrasound in Shandong to a higher level.