Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

I. Department overview and official accreditation

The Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Xiamen University is the core base for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases and for critical care rescue in south-western Fujian. Integrating medical care, teaching, research and prevention, its overall diagnostic and therapeutic strength ranks among the foremost in the province. The department comprises 9 major sub-specialties and runs a number of disease-specific clinics, forming an all-dimensional diagnostic and treatment system that covers common respiratory diseases, difficult and complicated cases and acute critical illness, with outstanding specialty features in chronic airway diseases, respiratory intervention and critical care. Its core official accreditations are as follows: · Fujian Provincial Clinical Key Specialty · Branch Centre of the National Clinical Research Centre for Respiratory Diseases · Postdoctoral Research Workstation · National Standardised Training Base for Resident Physicians · National Base for Drug and Device Clinical Trials

II. Scale of services and service capacity

The department has 127 open beds, including 12 beds in the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU), making it one of the largest and best-equipped respiratory critical care units in south-western Fujian. It offers a general respiratory outpatient clinic as well as disease-specific clinics for asthma, refractory asthma, smoking cessation, lung tumours, allergic diseases and interstitial lung disease, meeting patients' needs across the whole care cycle, from routine follow-up and precise disease-specific management to inpatient rescue of acute critical illness. The department is equipped with a full range of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, including international high-end invasive and non-invasive ventilators, a blood purification device (CRRT), bedside ultrasound, electronic bronchoscopes and rigid bronchoscopes, providing comprehensive organ function support for critically ill patients and ensuring that complex procedures are performed safely and to standard.

III. Core diagnostic and therapeutic technology system

The department's technology system covers every field of respiratory disease, with precise management of chronic airway diseases, minimally invasive respiratory intervention and integrated management of respiratory critical illness as its core features; its technical maturity and clinical efficacy are leading within the province and advanced nationally.

(1) Precise diagnosis and treatment system for asthma and chronic airway diseases

The department runs a dedicated asthma clinic and a dedicated refractory asthma clinic and has established a full-chain care model covering rescue of acute attacks, long-term standardised management and advanced intervention: it has mature inpatient rescue capability for acute severe asthma, rapidly controlling severe asthma attacks and stabilising vital signs; it has accumulated rich clinical experience in targeted therapy and biologic therapy for steroid-dependent asthma, formulating individualised regimens based on the patient's disease phenotype to improve disease control; relying on a multidisciplinary team, it can simultaneously provide emergency treatment during acute exacerbations and standardised steroid tapering during remission, steadily reducing steroid dependence while rapidly relieving symptoms and reducing the adverse effects of long-term medication; and it uses bronchial thermoplasty as a differentiated interventional technique for patients with refractory asthma who respond poorly to pharmacotherapy, as a supplementary advanced option beyond standard pharmacotherapy and biologic therapy, building a complete care loop of "basic pharmacotherapy – targeted biologic intervention – supplementary interventional technique – long-term follow-up management", avoiding the limitations of intervention alone and suiting asthma patients at different stages of disease.

(2) Respiratory interventional diagnostic and therapeutic techniques

The department routinely performs the full range of grade-IV bronchoscopic and thoracoscopic interventional procedures, with core interventional techniques at the national leading level: in bronchoscopic intervention, it can perform complex procedures such as cryobiopsy, laser ablation, airway stent placement, endobronchial ultrasound miniprobe-guided lung biopsy (EBUS-TBNA) and whole-lung lavage under rigid bronchoscopy; in medical thoracoscopy, it has mature techniques for refractory pneumothorax, interventional treatment of pulmonary bullae and pleurodesis/pleural adhesion release, with clinical volume and efficacy among the foremost in the country.

(3) Integrated management of respiratory critical illness

The department was the first in China to propose the concept of a "respiratory sub-ICU" and promotes an integrated model of critical, sub-critical and home-based rehabilitation care: the RICU is equipped with a full set of high-end life support devices and routinely provides invasive and non-invasive respiratory support, bedside blood purification and bedside ultrasound assessment; the sub-critical unit bridges acute-phase treatment and home-based rehabilitation, achieving closed-loop management of respiratory critically ill patients from rescue treatment to functional recovery and significantly improving rescue success rates and long-term quality of life.

(4) Multidisciplinary comprehensive management of lung cancer and other diseases

Drawing on the MDT multidisciplinary collaboration model, the department provides molecular targeted therapy, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, percutaneous ablation and seed implantation for lung cancer, offering patients individualised whole-course regimens. It also has standardised, mature diagnostic and therapeutic capability in sub-specialties including pleural diseases, pulmonary vascular diseases, interstitial lung diseases, infectious lung diseases and sleep-related breathing disorders.

IV. Academic leaders and talent team

The department has built a composite respiratory medicine workforce with a sound echelon structure and full coverage of professional directions, with a total of 105 medical and nursing staff. Physician team: 1 expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council, 4 master's supervisors, 9 doctors of medicine and 13 physicians with senior professional titles, forming a clinical and research echelon centred on highly qualified and senior specialists and covering all respiratory sub-specialties. Nursing team: 5 nurses with senior professional titles, with extensive experience in respiratory specialty nursing, critical care nursing and chronic disease management nursing, providing solid support for quality of care and patient safety.

V. Academic standing and regional reach

As the core base for respiratory disease diagnosis and treatment in south-western Fujian, the department undertakes consultation for difficult and severe cases, technology dissemination and talent training in the region, with academic influence extending across the province and nationwide: in teaching, it undertakes postgraduate training for Xiamen University and Fujian Medical University as well as clinical teaching for several medical colleges, and is a national standardised training base for resident physicians, continuously supplying high-quality respiratory specialists to the region; in research, it has led and completed a number of national, provincial and municipal research projects and international multicentre drug clinical trials, with research outputs sustained; in academic dissemination, it holds national and provincial academic conferences and training courses on lung tumour ablation techniques every year, promoting standardisation and homogenisation of respiratory diagnostic and treatment techniques.

VI. Department philosophy and development vision

Upholding the hospital's founding mission of "serving the public good and benefiting society", the department takes first-class technology, first-class equipment and a first-class team as its core support, continuing to deepen capacity building in precise diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases and in critical care rescue, providing high-quality whole-life-cycle diagnostic and treatment services for patients with respiratory diseases, and steadily advancing towards the goal of building a respiratory and critical care medicine department that leads the province and is influential nationwide.