Laboratory Medicine

The Department of Laboratory Medicine is a designated department for the development of a national key clinical laboratory medicine specialty and is also a key clinical laboratory medicine specialty in Fujian Province. It is one of the earliest municipal clinical laboratory medicine centers and municipal clinical laboratory quality control centers in Fujian Province to be integrated into a single laboratory medicine discipline: in 2001, it was approved as one of the first medical centers in Xiamen—the Xiamen Clinical Laboratory Center; in 2011, upon approval by the Xiamen Municipal Health Commission, the department officially became the affiliated department of the Xiamen Clinical Laboratory Quality Control Center, undertaking laboratory quality supervision, technical guidance, and quality evaluation for medical institutions throughout Xiamen, and leading the regional standardization of laboratory testing and mutual recognition of test results. The discipline’s overall strength ranks among the top tier of laboratory medicine disciplines in the province. The department has six national-level platforms: a branch center of the National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases; a member institution of the National Alliance for Anti-Infection and Health Promotion; a training base of the Chinese Laboratory Medicine Training Program; a national clinical sentinel site for neurosyphilis; a member institution of the China Syphilis Research Alliance; and the National Public Testing Platform for SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acids. Relying on the Institute of Infectious Disease Research of Xiamen University School of Medicine, it has established the Xiamen Key Laboratory of Basic and Translational Research on Blood-Borne Infectious Diseases and the Xiamen Key Laboratory of Clinical Laboratory Medicine. In terms of academic appointments, the department serves as the chairing institution of the Fujian Society of Cell Biology and Translational Medicine and the chairing institution of the Laboratory Medicine Branch of the Xiamen Medical Association. The department has successively received such honors as “Advanced Collective of the Fujian Health System,” “May 1 Pioneer Unit of Xiamen,” and “Advanced Primary-Level Party Organization of Xiamen Municipal Government Departments.” Upholding the spirit of “professionalism, dedication, passion, and innovation,” the department adheres to a development philosophy that places equal emphasis on “clinical practice, teaching, scientific research, and translation.” In 2012, it passed ISO 15189 International Medical Laboratory Accreditation, covering the application of testing items across the entire field of clinical laboratory medicine, and its laboratory reports have validity for international mutual recognition. It has complete subspecialties, including clinical biochemistry, clinical hematology (including the flow cytometry subspecialty) and body fluid analysis, clinical immunology, clinical microbiology, and clinical molecular diagnostics (including cytogenetics). It issues more than 3.16 million laboratory reports annually and performs more than 500 testing items. It was the first in southwestern Fujian to develop specialized technologies such as flow cytometry testing, cerebrospinal fluid cytological diagnosis, and IgG4 testing, thereby assisting in the diagnosis of difficult and rare diseases. In terms of equipment, it possesses a complete range of clinical laboratory and advanced research equipment, including a fully automated nucleic acid extraction and fluorescent PCR system, a multifunctional flow cytometry array analyzer, a high-throughput automated sample preparation system, a fully automated time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay analyzer, a gene sequencer, a fully automated chromosome scanning analyzer, a fully automated advanced research microscope, high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, flow cytometers, a sample loading and processing system plus an analytical processing system, a fully automated microbial analysis and culture system, and a microbial mass spectrometry detection system. The Department of Laboratory Medicine currently has 66 staff members, and its talent development structure ranks among the leading laboratory medicine disciplines in the province. Among them are 10 chief technicians and 32 deputy chief technicians; 6 doctoral researchers and 22 master’s researchers; 3 doctoral supervisors and 5 master’s supervisors. It has 1 Fujian Provincial Leading Scientific and Technological Innovation Talent, 1 Fujian Provincial Outstanding Young Scientist, 1 Fujian Provincial Excellent Young Scientist, and 5 Fujian Provincial High-Level Talents. One staff member has been recognized as a “Chinese Bethune-style Good Doctor,” and one as one of Xiamen’s Top Ten Young Doctors. Multiple experts have been selected as Xiamen Outstanding Scientific and Technological Innovation Talents, Xiamen Leading Talents, Xiamen Backbone Talents, Xiamen High-Level Talents, and Xiamen Young Innovation and Entrepreneurship Talents. The department has established a Staff Innovation Studio under the Xiamen Federation of Trade Unions. Over the past five years, more than 40 person-times of department personnel have held positions in academic organizations related to laboratory medicine at various levels, including national-level deputy chairs and standing committee members. The department’s basic and clinical research on infectious diseases, particularly syphilis, is at a nationally leading level. In 2014, it was the first in the world to propose a third syphilis laboratory diagnostic algorithm, thereby revising the European and Canadian guidelines for syphilis prevention and control. Several experts from the department have participated in formulating national health industry standards, drafted national expert consensuses, led the formulation of Xiamen local standards, and contributed to national laboratory medicine textbooks. As of August 2026, the department has led 36 national-level scientific research projects, including 1 Ministry of Science and Technology innovation project, 2 “863” Program projects, and 33 National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, as well as more than 100 provincial- and municipal-level scientific research projects, including major provincial projects, Provincial Outstanding Young Scientist projects, provincial key projects, and Excellent Young Scientist projects. It has received 17 awards, including the Ministry of Education’s Natural Science Award and provincial and municipal science and technology progress awards; obtained authorization for 36 national invention patents and 26 utility model patents; and published more than 300 scientific papers, including 210 SCI-indexed papers and 28 papers in Chinese Academy of Sciences Category 1 journals or with an impact factor of ≥10. The department strictly implements a comprehensive quality management system and provides round-the-clock laboratory testing services 24 hours a day. With the strong functions of a regional quality control center, national-level specialty platforms, distinctive testing capabilities for difficult and rare diseases, and leading diagnostic technologies for infectious diseases, it provides the general public with accurate, rapid, reliable, and internationally mutually recognizable high-quality laboratory services.