Clinical Nutrition

The Department of Clinical Nutrition of Shandong Provincial Hospital was established in 1940. It is a clinical secondary discipline integrating medical care, teaching, and research. In November 2024, it was approved as a key discipline in medicine and health in Shandong Province. It currently serves as a standing committee member unit of the Nutrition Physicians Professional Committee of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, the chairing unit of the Clinical Nutrition Branch of the Shandong Medical Association, and the incoming chairing unit of the Nutrition Physicians Professional Committee of the Shandong Medical Doctor Association, and it took the lead in establishing the Shandong Clinical Nutrition Specialty Alliance. It is a clinical trial base for foods for special medical purposes filed with the State Administration for Market Regulation, and has completed multiple clinical trials of such foods.

The department has 19 professional and technical staff members, including 4 clinical physicians, 6 nutrition physicians, 5 nutritionists, 3 research staff members, and 1 nurse; 5 hold senior professional titles, and there are 1 doctoral supervisor and 4 master's supervisors; the team includes 5 postdoctoral researchers, 9 staff members with doctorates, and 6 with master's degrees, forming a talent echelon with a sound structure and solid foundation. It operates at the Central Hospital Campus and Olympic Sports Campus, providing nutrition outpatient services, hospital-wide consultations, therapeutic diets, enteral nutrition, nutrition risk screening and assessment, standardized management of foods for special medical purposes, and science popularization and education, thereby establishing a systematic, standardized, and whole-course clinical nutrition service system. Diagnostic and treatment services cover all types of patients throughout the hospital, providing nutritional management for obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases, as well as for patients with kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases, digestive system diseases, tumors, and other chronic diseases and critical illnesses. The two specialty clinics, the “Weight and Nutrition Intervention Clinic” and the “Oncology Nutrition Clinic,” rely on precise assessment and a whole-course management model to provide patients with continuous and scientifically based nutritional therapy.

The department has achieved notable results in building a smart nutrition information platform. It independently developed an intelligent system integrating nutrition risk screening, in-hospital and out-of-hospital follow-up, and inpatient management of specific diseases, promoting the transformation of the diagnostic and treatment model from “experience-based judgment” to “data-driven” practice. In the management of foods for special medical purposes, it established an intelligent supervision system with whole-process traceability and, relying on the national clinical trial base for such foods, promoted the integrated development of industry, academia, research, and application. In enteral nutrition therapy, it also independently developed 15 specialty formula diets, including fat-free formulas, high-fiber and high-protein formulas, and ulcerative colitis formulas. These have shown significant clinical efficacy and effectively promoted patient recovery.

In research, the department has undertaken 11 national-level projects and 8 provincial-level projects in recent years, published more than 20 SCI papers, obtained 3 software copyrights, and was the first in the province to conduct clinical trials of foods for special medical purposes. As a master's training site of Shandong First Medical University, it undertakes undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Professor Feng Li has been awarded titles including “Outstanding Supervisor” and “Advanced Individual in Teaching,” and the department continues to undertake continuing education and training for nutrition professionals nationwide, promoting the continuous development of the discipline and its professional influence.