Occupational Rehabilitation Department

The Department of Vocational Rehabilitation of the Affiliated Hospital of Inner Mongolia Medical University was established in 1994 and is one of the earliest departments among hospitals in the autonomous region to be established and carry out rehabilitation work. At present, the hospital's rehabilitation discipline has a complete functional and organizational structure and possesses high-quality teams of physicians, therapists, and nurses. It has accumulated extensive experience in rehabilitation-discipline development and in clinical practice, scientific research, and teaching. It has now developed into a rehabilitation discipline with distinctive characteristics, outstanding capabilities, and a certain leading role in the autonomous region.

The Rehabilitation Department currently has a ward with 55 beds, a total treatment-area of 3415 square meters, and internationally advanced rehabilitation equipment, including a robotic rehabilitation system, an AI intelligent rehabilitation system, an intelligent motor assessment system, advanced rehabilitation systems for neurological diseases, including cognitive, language, and articulation rehabilitation, and non-invasive neuromodulation. In neurological diseases, bone and joint diseases, critically ill patients, and respiratory diseases, it has preliminarily established a comprehensive ultra-early rehabilitation system and has preliminarily formed subspecialty directions in neurology, respiratory rehabilitation, pediatrics, and bone and joint rehabilitation.

There are currently more than 70 professional and technical personnel, including 6 chief physicians, 2 deputy chief physicians, and 7 attending physicians, among whom are 1 postdoctoral fellow, 1 doctoral degree holder, and 16 master's degree holders; 2 deputy chief technicians and 5 supervising technicians; 2 chief nurses, 1 deputy chief nurse, 5 nurse supervisors, and 6 nurses. At the same time, the department is responsible for training undergraduate students majoring in Rehabilitation Therapy at Inner Mongolia Medical University and has a graduate degree program in Rehabilitation Medicine. It is a specialty training base for dysphagia rehabilitation of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine and a member institution of the National Coma Awakening program.

In the National Swallowing Competition, it won the first prize and second prize in the North China Swallowing Case Competition, as well as the Excellence Award in the National Swallowing Competition. The department has successively led 4 national-level scientific research projects and 16 autonomous-region-level scientific research projects, published more than 10 SCI papers, more than 60 papers, and 4 books, and in 2015 and 2016 respectively received one third prize each in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Science and Technology Awards; in 2018, it received one second prize in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Science and Technology Progress Awards.

Disciplinary Features

The department has accumulated extensive experience in neurorehabilitation, critical-care rehabilitation, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation, orthopedic rehabilitation, and pediatric rehabilitation. In swallowing, arousal promotion, cognition, articulation, pediatric rehabilitation, and rehabilitation assessment, it has reached a leading level in the autonomous region. It completes more than 500 swallowing videofluoroscopy examinations each year. The technical research projects for dysphagia that the department can currently undertake include: modified barium swallow videofluoroscopy technology, innovative swallowing rehabilitation treatment—practical technology for oral sensorimotor training, catheter balloon dilation, application of speaking valves, Vitalstim electrical stimulation therapy; application of neuromodulation technology; development of comprehensive arousal-promotion technology; prediction and assessment technology for functional prognosis models.