Rehabilitation Medicine

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine was established in 1974. It is one of the specialties in the province to have been among the first to carry out modern physical therapy. Relying on the strong traditional Chinese medicine advantages of Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is committed to developing an integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation model. The department currently comprises four divisions: Comprehensive Rehabilitation Department (Qiantang), Comprehensive Rehabilitation Department (Xixi), Pediatric Rehabilitation Department, and Rehabilitation Therapy Department. It has 5 rehabilitation wards, 250 beds, and a medical, technical, and nursing team of 198 members, including a 37-member physician team, a 54-member therapist team, and a 108-member nursing team. Among them, 6 hold senior professional titles at associate senior level or above, and 30 hold intermediate professional titles. The department has distinctive expertise in adult rehabilitation, pediatric critical care rehabilitation, arousal promotion in disorders of consciousness, pelvic floor rehabilitation, and traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation for Parkinson’s disease. It possesses advanced rehabilitation equipment, including an overhead track, suspension training system, lower-limb rehabilitation robot, gait assessment and training system, virtual reality intelligent treadmill, visual speech training instrument, multifunctional situational interactive training system, electronic laryngoscope, and transcranial magnetic stimulator, reaching an advanced domestic level. It is equipped with a new high-end flat-bottomed oxygen chamber and holds a leading position in the province in hyperbaric oxygen treatment for patients receiving ventilator support.

Technical Advantages

The department routinely conducts rehabilitation assessment programs including fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, near-infrared brain function imaging assessment, and three-dimensional gait analysis. It operates specialized outpatient clinics including a combined intensive-care rehabilitation clinic; a combined traditional Chinese and Western medicine clinic for comprehensive rehabilitation of difficult postpartum cases; a specialized clinic for comprehensive women’s rehabilitation; a postpartum pain clinic; a temporomandibular joint rehabilitation clinic; a foot and ankle rehabilitation clinic; a musculoskeletal pain clinic; a specialized clinic for post-stroke sequelae; a specialized rehabilitation clinic for Parkinson’s disease; and a specialized clinic for dysphagia, as well as specialized pediatric clinics for autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, learning disorders, feeding difficulties, and other conditions. At the same time, combining the characteristics of traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment, the department integrates various characteristic traditional Chinese medicine treatments, such as traditional acupuncture, tuina, and traditional Chinese medicines, with modern rehabilitation technologies to establish a modern integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation medicine model with distinctive characteristics. It also specially invites national-level masters of traditional Chinese medicine and renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioners at the national and provincial levels to provide regular consultations, thereby building a comprehensive traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation model.

Academic Standing

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine is a key specialty in traditional Chinese medicine under Zhejiang Province’s “13th Five-Year Plan”; a deputy-chairman unit of the Critical Care Rehabilitation Committee of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; the chairing unit of the Zhejiang Health and Elderly Care Alliance; the chairing unit of the Rehabilitation Medicine Professional Committee of the Zhejiang Invention Association; a national standardized residency training base for traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation; one of the first standardized therapist training bases of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; one of the first specialized training bases for critical care rehabilitation of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; a continuing education and training base of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; a specialized training base for brain function detection and regulation of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; an executive council member unit of the Yangtze River Delta Smart Rehabilitation Alliance; a member unit of the Zhejiang Rehabilitation Medicine Alliance; and a member unit of the Zhejiang Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Rehabilitation Medicine Alliance. Several experts from the department serve as deputy chairmen and executive committee members of various committees and branches, including the Critical Care Rehabilitation Professional Committee of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, the Rehabilitation Branch and the Professional Committee for Disorders of Consciousness of the China Association of Chinese Medicine, the Zhejiang Association of Chinese Medicine, the Zhejiang Association of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and the Zhejiang Rehabilitation Medicine Association. The department hosts and co-hosts annual meetings of the Critical Care Rehabilitation Professional Committee and specialized critical care training courses, collaborates and exchanges with many affiliated hospitals inside and outside the province, and carries out in-depth development of the Zhejiang Health and Elderly Care Alliance. It has a relatively high academic standing and influence in the field of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation nationwide.

Research Achievements

The department has undertaken 5 national-level projects, 1 provincial- or ministerial-level project, and 14 department- or bureau-level projects, and has received 1 first prize from a national academic society and 2 third prizes at the department- or bureau-level. 45 papers have been indexed by SCI. 8 monographs have been published.