Nephrology

The Department of Nephrology was founded in 1989. Its former director was Professor Jia Qiang, and its current director is Professor Zhang Aihua. The nephrology outpatient clinic records 30,000–40,000 visits a year, and the nephrology ward discharges more than 1,000 patients annually. The blood purification center has 41 hemodialysis machines. The department performs kidney biopsies and renal pathology diagnosis, provides various blood purification modalities and specialized clinical tests for serum biomarkers of kidney disease, and establishes vascular access through central venous catheterization and arteriovenous fistula surgery. Its specialized services include radiofrequency ablation of parathyroid adenomas, volume and body composition measurements, and nutritional and cognitive assessments for people with kidney disease.

The hospital reports that more than 30 years of work have substantially improved its ability to diagnose and treat complex and critically ill renal patients, acute kidney injury and chronic renal failure, alongside advances in teaching and educational research. It describes its clinical and research work as being at an advanced national and international level. Professor Zhang Aihua supervises doctoral students and co-supervises postdoctoral researchers, and Professor Jia Qiang supervises master's students. The department has five chief physicians, four associate chief physicians and four attending physicians. Its clinical and mechanistic research covers kidney disease and complications including renal malnutrition, vascular calcification, cognitive dysfunction and renal aging. It has undertaken six National Natural Science Foundation projects and one key project jointly funded by the Beijing Municipal Education Commission and Beijing Natural Science Foundation. The department serves as the chair institution of the Chinese Geriatric Nephrology Alliance under the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, and is a Beijing standardized residency training base and a Beijing hemodialysis specialty training base. It has trained many professionals for China and Beijing.