China-Japan Friendship Hospital

The Department of Pain Management at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital is one of the earliest established pain management departments in China, with a history of over thirty years. It serves as the leading unit for the "National Pain Treatment Research Center," the "National Pain Professional Medical Quality Control Center," and the "Beijing Pain Treatment Quality Control and Improvement Center," and was among the first batch of units selected for the "National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project." The department's core strength lies in neuromodulation techniques (spinal cord stimulation, intrathecal drug infusion), with a focus on comprehensive cancer pain management and minimally invasive interventional treatment of neuropathic pain. It positions itself as a source of specialized development in pain medicine in China and a leader in the standardization of pain treatment techniques nationwide. The department is one of the largest, most technologically advanced, and most comprehensive pain management departments in China.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

Since its establishment, the Department of Pain Management at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital has successively become the leading unit of the "National Pain Treatment and Research Center" and the "National Pain Professional Medical Quality Control Center," and took the lead in establishing a "Pain Specialty Medical Consortium" in China. Professor Fan Bifa, as the discipline leader and a core member, participated in and promoted the Department of Pain Management to officially become a national first-level clinical medical specialty in 2007, witnessing and leading my country's pain medicine towards a new stage of standardized development. He proposed that "we must establish a pain medicine system of our own in China, so that every pain patient can receive professional treatment," a concept that has become the core driving force for the department's development.

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The department currently has subspecialties including "cancer pain," "neuropathic pain," "spinal pain," and "head and face pain," specializing in the treatment of intractable pain conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, postherpetic neuralgia, lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis, and cancer pain using various minimally invasive techniques. The department offers all types of minimally invasive neurointerventional analgesia and minimally invasive spinal treatment techniques currently available in China. It was among the first in China to implement internationally advanced pain management techniques such as spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and central target-controlled analgesia (PUMP), making it the first and currently the department in my country to offer the most comprehensive range of these pain management techniques, pioneering the use of neuromodulation in the treatment of chronic pain in my country. The department has received nearly 1,000 visiting physicians from all over the country and 20 visiting scholars from all over the world. It undertakes clinical teaching tasks in pain medicine at Peking University School of Medicine and national key research and development projects.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

It is home to the National Center for Quality Control of Pain Management (established by the Department of Pain Management of China-Japan Friendship Hospital under the entrustment of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission) and the Beijing Center for Quality Control and Improvement of Pain Treatment. Professor Fan Bifa serves as the Chairman of the Pain Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, the President of the Pain Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and the Director of the National Center for Quality Control of Pain Management. The quality control indicators he spearheaded have become important references for hospital accreditation. The pain specialist medical consortium led by the department has covered more than 1,200 medical institutions nationwide, initially establishing a hierarchical diagnosis and treatment network with coordinated efforts between different levels of healthcare providers. The WHO's ICD-11 classifies chronic pain into seven categories. Professor Fan Bifa interprets this precise classification as providing a "common language" for interdisciplinary collaboration, promoting pain management from anesthesiology-related surgical analgesia to comprehensive management of pain issues across multiple departments.

The National Lung Transplant Quality Control Center, one of the world's eight major lung transplant centers, and one of the few national-level transplant platforms in China with qualifications for transplanting all six major organs: lung, kidney, liver, heart, pancreas, and small intestine. It integrates organ donation assessment, transplant surgery, perioperative critical care support, individualized immunosuppression, long-term follow-up, and post-transplant rehabilitation. Benchmarking against the Pittsburgh Transplant Center in the United States and the Wuxi People's Hospital Lung Transplant Center, it is a leading center in China for end-stage lung disease lung transplantation, perioperative ECMO bridging for lung transplantation, minimally invasive donor kidney retrieval for kidney transplantation, and integrated prevention and control of transplant rejection and infection. The Organ Transplant Center of China-Japan Friendship Hospital is one of the earliest institutions in China to conduct organ transplantation. It is now a core unit supporting the National Respiratory Medicine Center and the National Lung Transplant Quality Control Center, possessing qualifications for six major organ transplants: liver, kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and small intestine. The center's flagship strength lies in lung transplantation (one of the world's eight major lung transplant centers performing over 100 surgeries annually), with kidney transplantation as its clinical foundation (over 1,000 cases cumulatively), and "ischemia-free" liver transplantation as a cutting-edge breakthrough. It is positioned as a national-level highland for the ultimate treatment of end-stage respiratory diseases in China and a demonstration center for the systematic development of major organ transplantation.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

The China-Japan Friendship Hospital opened in 1984. Its first president, Professor Xin Yuling, was the surgeon who performed my country's first lung transplant and one of the founders of thoracic surgery in my country, laying a solid academic foundation for the hospital's organ transplantation program. The hospital's organ transplantation work began in the 1960s. After years of development, a lung transplant center was officially established in March 2017, with Professor Wang Chen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the hospital's president, serving as the center's director. Renowned lung transplant expert Professor Chen Jingyu joined the center as deputy director and director of the lung transplant department. In 2021, the hospital listed organ transplantation as one of its four priority discipline clusters for development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, aiming to build a national-level large-scale organ transplant center.

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The hospital established an organ donation management center in January 2018, equipped with a team of coordinators to carry out organ donation work in accordance with laws and regulations. A total of 73 organ donations have been performed, resulting in 232 organs and saving the lives of 232 critically ill patients. Since its establishment in 2017, the lung transplant center has completed over 450 lung transplant surgeries in five years, averaging approximately 100 surgeries per year. The annual number of lung transplant surgeries performed by a single ward ranks among the top in the country, and it has become one of the world's eight major lung transplant centers with over 100 surgeries per year. Since 2007, the hospital has completed over 1,000 kidney transplants, with a 1-year survival rate of 95% and a 5-year survival rate of over 80%, placing its success rate at an advanced level in China. In 2019, nearly 100 kidney transplants were performed, with a 100% survival rate for both patients and transplanted kidneys. Since its inception in 2022, the liver transplantation program has achieved a 100% patient survival rate, with an average of over 60 liver transplant surgeries performed annually. The number of liver transplant surgeries ranks among the top four liver transplant centers in Beijing.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

It is the National Lung Transplant Quality Control Center (certified in 2020) and the Beijing Municipal Training Base for Lung and Kidney Transplant Physicians (approved in 2022). The hospital is one of the few in China qualified to perform liver, kidney, heart, and lung transplants, and has later been approved for pancreas and small intestine transplants. The Lung Transplant Department, affiliated with the National Respiratory Medical Center and led by Academician Wang Chen and Professor Chen Jingyu, integrates teams from multiple disciplines including respiratory and critical care medicine, thoracic surgery, rehabilitation, nutrition, pharmacy, and psychology, forming a comprehensive and systematic comorbidity management model for lung transplantation.

The China-Japan Friendship Hospital's system for the diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex diseases is not a single, independent department. Instead, it is an integrated interdisciplinary diagnostic and treatment network built upon the National Respiratory Medical Center (Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine), the National Key Clinical Specialty of Rheumatology and Immunology, the Department of Neurology (Movement Disorders and Neurogenetic Diseases), and the Department of Pediatrics (Genetic and Metabolic Diseases). It relies on the hospital's multidisciplinary team (MDT) collaborative platform. The hospital is a large-scale, comprehensive, tertiary-level Grade A hospital directly under the National Health Commission, specializing in complex respiratory diseases, interstitial lung disease, inflammatory myopathy, rare neurogenetic diseases, and genetic and metabolic diseases. It is positioned as a national-level clinical and research hub for the precise diagnosis and treatment of rare and complex respiratory diseases and inflammatory myopathy.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

The China-Japan Friendship Hospital opened on October 23, 1984, as one of the first foreign-funded projects funded by my country's reform and opening up. The hospital brought together renowned medical experts such as Xin Yuling, Pan Xiaoren, Jiao Shude, Yin Huihe, Wang Guoxiang, and Chao Enxiang, establishing a solid academic foundation in respiratory medicine, endocrinology, traditional Chinese medicine, and neurogenetics. Academician Wang Chen and others have made outstanding achievements in COPD, asthma, respiratory infections, interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary vascular disease, with several important innovations, including half-dose thrombolysis for pulmonary embolism, being included in international treatment guidelines. Professor Wang Guoxiang's research in neurogenetics has received widespread attention both domestically and internationally, laying the academic foundation for the hospital's rare neurological disease treatment system.

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The hospital currently has 1,610 beds and comprises four departments of respiratory and critical care medicine, a traditional Chinese medicine respiratory department, a thoracic surgery department, a consultation platform for complex respiratory diseases, and telemedicine, forming a complete system for the diagnosis and treatment of complex respiratory diseases. Department III of respiratory and critical care medicine, as the core component of the respiratory center, has 70 beds and primarily treats patients with interstitial lung disease or diffuse parenchymal lung disease, chronic airway diseases, pulmonary nodules and lung tumors, sleep-disordered breathing, rare respiratory diseases, or complex respiratory conditions. The pediatrics department has cumulatively treated 3,670 patients with hyperphenylalaninemia, including nearly 300 patients with tetrahydrobiopterin deficiency, placing its diagnostic and treatment standards among the leading in northern China. The Department of Rheumatology and Immunology has taken the lead in obtaining approval for the "Beijing Key Laboratory for Precision Diagnosis and Innovative Translation of Inflammatory Myopathy" (2026), focusing on the construction of a precision diagnosis and treatment system and the development of innovative drugs for inflammatory myopathy, a rare autoimmune disease.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

The hospital is a core affiliated unit of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine and home to several national key clinical specialties (Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Rheumatology and Immunology, Endocrinology, Thoracic Surgery, etc.). Professor Dai Huaping serves as the head of the Interstitial Lung Disease Group of the Chinese Medical Association's Respiratory Diseases Branch and is one of the most influential experts in the field of interstitial lung disease and complex respiratory diseases in China. Professor Gu Weihong is the initiator of the Chinese Human Phenotyping Standards (CHPO) Alliance and received the inaugural "Golden Snail Award" for Rare Disease Contribution in 2021. She is a leading figure in the field of clinical diagnosis and treatment and genetic counseling for rare diseases in China. Professor Lu Xin's Inflammatory Myopathy Laboratory focuses on rare autoimmune diseases such as dermatomyositis, polymyositis, and immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, and has built a systematic research system that is at the leading level both domestically and internationally.

The Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine at China-Japan Friendship Hospital is a core supporting unit of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, the Institute of Respiratory Diseases of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Smoking Cessation and Prevention of Respiratory Diseases. It is a national key discipline (Internal Medicine - Respiratory Diseases) and a national key clinical specialty. Led by Professor Wang Chen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the department is characterized by its strengths in respiratory failure and critical care medicine, and its leading national directions in COPD and respiratory rehabilitation, respiratory infections, and emerging and re-emerging respiratory infectious diseases. It boasts a complete subspecialty matrix encompassing pulmonary embolism and pulmonary vascular disease, interstitial lung disease, and bronchial asthma. The department is positioned as the originator of China's integrated six-pronged management system for respiratory diseases ("promotion, prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and rehabilitation") and a leader in the standardized development of respiratory medicine nationwide.

Historical Origins and Spiritual Inheritance:

The Respiratory Center of China-Japan Friendship Hospital was established in May 2015. Its Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Thoracic Surgery, and Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulmonary Diseases are all national key clinical specialties. In 2020, the National Health Commission established the National Respiratory Medicine Center, with China-Japan Friendship Hospital as its main body. Together with the team of Academician Zhong Nanshan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, it forms a collaborative national respiratory medicine center network spanning north and south. Academician Wang Chen serves as the director of the Respiratory Center, and Professor Chao Enxiang, a master of Traditional Chinese Medicine respiratory medicine, serves as the head of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine Respiratory Medicine. The center brings together renowned experts in respiratory and critical care medicine, thoracic surgery, Traditional Chinese Medicine respiratory diseases, and tobacco diseases, including Lin Jiangtao, Dai Huaping, Cao Bin, and Zhan Qingyuan.

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The Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) has 300 beds, including general wards, a MICU, a lung transplant ward, a tuberculosis ward, and an international medical ward for respiratory diseases. The department currently has one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, one recipient of the Yangtze River Scholar Award from the Ministry of Education and the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 14 chief physicians, and 11 associate chief physicians, among whom 68 hold doctoral degrees. The Respiratory Center comprises four clinical departments: Department 1 (bronchial asthma, chronic cough), Department 2 (respiratory infections, pulmonary embolism and pulmonary vascular disease), Department 3 (COPD, interstitial lung disease, lung cancer, sleep apnea, and complex respiratory diseases), and Department 4 (respiratory failure and medical critical care), forming a complete modern subspecialty system of respiratory medicine.

Discipline Positioning and Benchmarking:

It is the main unit of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, the core unit and director unit of the National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, and the unit where the leader of the Ministry of Science and Technology's Innovation Team for Respiratory and Pulmonary Circulation Research is located. The discipline has established a comprehensive system for respiratory diseases, encompassing prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and rehabilitation, from early prevention to lung transplantation for end-stage lung disease. In terms of international benchmarking, Professor Cao Bin serves as the Chairman of the 12th Committee of the Chinese Medical Association's Respiratory Diseases Branch and a member of the International Society for Influenza and Respiratory Virus Infections (ISIRV). Four of his team's achievements have been incorporated into WHO and NIH guidelines. Professor Yang Ting has published over 70 SCI papers in journals such as Lancet and has led national public health projects, including the Early Screening and Comprehensive Intervention Project for High-Risk Groups of COPD and the Basic Public Health Service Project for COPD.