Nutrition

As the medical model gradually shifts toward the bio-psycho-social model, the important role of nutrition in disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and health maintenance is becoming increasingly prominent. The saying goes, 'Thirty percent treatment and seventy percent nourishment.' Scientific, timely, and appropriate nutrition not only supports clinical treatment but is also the key to preventing illness before it occurs and treating disease before it develops. Clinical nutrition is an important branch of a hospital's clinical disciplines. By controlling the intake of the three major nutrients and other minerals and vitamins, it aims to improve the body's immunity and ameliorate disease, thereby shortening the hospital stay and promoting an early return to health.

Our hospital currently has 5 dietitians, including 1 senior dietitian, 3 supervising dietitians, and 1 master's graduate; 3 have obtained national registered-dietitian credentials. The department undertakes nutritional screening, assessment, consultation, and education for inpatients. It provides nutritional support for various pulmonary diseases, including tuberculosis, tumors, pulmonary hypertension, and the perioperative period of lung disease, as well as nutritional guidance and intervention for metabolic and chronic diseases such as diabetes, gout, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. It also develops individualized dietary plans for critically ill patients and operates a specialized nutrition clinic to provide nutritional guidance and consultation for all kinds of patients. In 2020, it conducted nutritional screening for 95,006 person-visits, 814 nutritional assessments, 3,253 nutrition-education sessions, 37 nutrition-clinic visits, provided therapeutic diets to 30,885 person-visits, oral nutritional supplements to 997 person-visits, enteral nutrition to 2,753 person-visits, and participated in MDT teams to provide accelerated-recovery nutritional support to 8,662 person-visits.

At present, the Nutrition Department of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital has advanced equipment such as a body-composition analyzer, hand-grip dynamometer, and skinfold caliper. It can provide patients with precise nutritional assessments and corresponding nutritional treatment plans and advice. The department has also launched online nutrition education through the WeChat platform and can interact with patients online, responding promptly to their questions.

The Nutrition Department has completed one hospital-level research project and participated in one project of the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission. It has published one SCI paper and more than ten papers in core journals; staff have made one conference presentation and participated in multiple poster exchanges. The department has also participated in television health-promotion programs such as Health Lecture Hall, Living to 100, and Famous Doctors' Consultation.

For several consecutive years, the Nutrition Department has ranked in the top third in the specialty-hospital assessments of the Shanghai Clinical Nutrition Quality Control Center. It received the China Association for Promoting International Medical and Healthcare Exchange Smart Hospital Project award as an innovation unit for the Huatuo Public Welfare Initiative—Hospital Smart Nutrition Education and Service Development. In 2021, it received the Outstanding Individual in Science Popularization award from the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine. In terms of academic appointments, it has one standing committee member in the Nutrition Academic Division of the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Branch of the China Association for Promoting International Medical and Healthcare Exchange, one deputy secretary-general of the Nutrition Branch of the Chinese Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and one secretary in the Nutrition Academic Division of the same tuberculosis branch. The department also undertakes the supervision and teaching of visiting trainees and interns.

In Party-building work, one staff member was recognized as an Outstanding Communist Party Member of Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, and the department received the award for an outstanding interview essay in the 'Devoted to the Party, Faithful to Medicine—Shanghai Health Stories I Personally Experienced during the Centenary of the Founding of the Party' activity.

The Nutrition Department will serve every patient wholeheartedly, strive to be an advocate for healthy living, and actively respond to and implement the Healthy China Action 2019–2030 and the National Nutrition Plan (2017–2030). Healthy China starts with nutrition; let us enjoy good nutrition every day and health throughout our lives.