Endocrinology and Metabolism

The Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, was established in 1994. It is a comprehensive department integrating clinical care, medical research, clinical teaching, and standardized residency training, and is a degree-granting site for doctoral and master’s students in endocrinology and metabolism at Zhejiang University School of Medicine. Wards are operated in the Qingchun, Qiantang, Grand Canal, and Shaoxing campuses, with more than 100 approved beds. The department currently has more than 200,000 outpatient visits and more than 6,000 inpatients annually. It has developed distinctive strengths in the comprehensive diagnosis, treatment, and management of diabetes and its chronic complications, obesity, diabetic foot, adrenal diseases, and other conditions, and its diagnostic and treatment level for endocrine and metabolic diseases is among the leading in the province. The discipline is a Zhejiang Provincial Key Medical Discipline (innovative discipline), one of the first national training bases for dynamic blood glucose monitoring technology, a training base for intensive insulin pump therapy, and a Chinese Diabetes Education Demonstration Unit. In 2021, it established the National Standardized Metabolic Disease Management Center, and in 2024 it joined the National Obesity Diagnosis and Treatment Alliance, further improving the comprehensive diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, obesity, and other metabolism-related diseases. For the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases, adrenal diseases, bone metabolic diseases, and diabetic foot, it has established a sound multidisciplinary collaborative diagnosis and treatment model with relevant departments such as head and neck surgery, ultrasound, urology, interventional medicine, and orthopedics. The department currently has 38 physicians, including 18 senior professional and technical staff; nearly half of the physicians have undertaken further study in Europe or the United States. The discipline has 3 doctoral supervisors and 7 master’s supervisors. It currently offers specialty outpatient clinics, including an obesity and weight-loss clinic, diabetic foot clinic, thyroid disease clinic, hypertension clinic, and pituitary-adrenal-gonadal disease clinic.

The department is equipped with a screening room for chronic complications of diabetes and a bone-density examination room, with various examination devices including a non-mydriatic fundus camera, a Doppler blood-flow analyzer for the four limbs, a vibration perception threshold tester, a bone densitometer, and a visceral fat analyzer. It has dozens of insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. The discipline has an independent basic research PI laboratory with a total area of 150 square meters and maintains long-term, good cooperative relationships with well-known medical schools and hospitals at home and abroad. It has achieved notable results in the diagnosis and treatment of difficult and severe endocrine diseases, prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome, adipose function research, basic and clinical research on diabetic nephropathy, and research on pancreatic β-cell function.

Technical Advantages

The scope of diagnosis and treatment includes: hypothalamic-pituitary diseases (pituitary tumors, pituitary inflammation, hypopituitarism, diabetes insipidus, hyperprolactinemia, etc.), thyroid diseases, parathyroid diseases, adrenal diseases, gonadal diseases, growth and developmental delay, polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes and its complications, obesity, gout, hyperuricemia, hypoglycemia, secondary hypertension, electrolyte disorders (hypokalemia, hypercalcemia, hypocalcemia, hyponatremia, hypophosphatemia, etc.), osteoporosis, lipid metabolism disorders, and others.

The specialty clinics currently offered are: obesity and weight-loss clinic, type 1 diabetes clinic, gestational diabetes clinic, diabetic foot specialty clinic, hypertension clinic, pituitary-adrenal-gonadal specialty clinic, thyroid disease specialty clinic, gout clinic, and osteoporosis specialty clinic.

The advanced techniques include: functional amputation for diabetic foot, metabolic bariatric surgery, specialized diabetes education, bilateral adrenal venous sampling, inferior petrosal sinus sampling, 3C closed-loop intensive blood-glucose control, and integrated information management of diabetes and obesity inside and outside the hospital.

Academic Status

Zhejiang Provincial Key Medical Discipline (innovative discipline)

Zhejiang University doctoral and master’s degree-granting site

Key Development Discipline of the School of Medicine, Zhejiang University

Chairing Unit of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Physicians Branch of the Zhejiang Medical Doctor Association

Incoming Chairing Unit of the Endocrinology Branch of the Zhejiang Medical Association

First Member Unit of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Obesity Diagnosis and Treatment Alliance

Demonstration Center for the Endocrinology and Metabolism Weight Management Program

National Standardized Metabolic Disease Management Center

Specialty Residency Training Base for Endocrinology and Metabolism of the National Health Commission

National Osteoporosis Diagnosis and Treatment Collaborative Base

Primary Physician Training Base for Diabetes of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association

Standardized Training Center for Insulin Pumps and Continuous Glucose Monitoring of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association

China Education Program Cooperation Center of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes

Diabetes Education Certification Unit of the Diabetes Branch of the Chinese Medical Association

Zhejiang Diabetes Specialist Nurse Training Base

Research Achievements

The department has led 16 National Natural Science Foundation projects, subprojects of the “11th Five-Year” and “12th Five-Year” science and technology support programs, major special projects of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Science and Technology, key projects of the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation, and more than 20 other Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation projects. Its research achievements have received 8 provincial- and ministerial-level science and technology awards. It has led and participated in the drafting and development of multiple clinical guidelines and consensuses. It has published more than 170 academic papers, including more than 80 SCI-indexed papers.