China's Top Departments: Pediatric Internal Medicine at Children's Hospital of Fudan University (Shanghai)

When a child faces a complex or hard-to-explain condition — a fragile newborn, chronic abdominal pain or inflammatory bowel disease, severe or recurrent respiratory illness, a congenital heart defect, kidney or urinary tract malformations, epilepsy, growth and puberty problems, or a stubborn infection — families from across China and abroad come to the Department of Pediatric Internal Medicine (General Pediatrics) at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University, known simply as "Fudan Children's." As a National Children's Medical Center with the full spectrum of pediatric subspecialties under one roof, it offers international families a level of pediatric depth that few hospitals in Asia can match.

Department Overview

The Children's Hospital of Fudan University is a tertiary (Class A) comprehensive children's hospital under the budget management of the National Health Commission, a national key discipline in pediatrics, a participant in the national "211," "985" and "Double First-Class" programs, and was approved as a National Children's Medical Center in 2017. Together with Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Children's Medical Center and Xinhua Hospital's pediatric department, it is one of Shanghai's "Big Four" children's hospitals, and it leads the Fudan Pediatric Medical Alliance.

Pediatric Internal Medicine (General Pediatrics) is the hospital's core clinical discipline group. Since the Fudan "Best Specialty Reputation Ranking of Chinese Hospitals" was established in 2009, the hospital's pediatric internal medicine has ranked No. 1 nationwide every year, while the hospital has persistently placed among the top 50 general hospitals in China. In the 2015 Peking University "Best Clinical Disciplines Assessment," the hospital's pediatrics ranked No. 1 in China. The department maintains a full range of subspecialties — neonatology, pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric respiratory medicine, pediatric cardiology, pediatric nephrology, pediatric neurology, pediatric endocrinology and infectious diseases — with an integrated outpatient–ward–follow-up management model.

Hospital Background

• Founded in 1952, merging the pediatric departments of Zhongshan Hospital and the First Red Cross Hospital with the branch of the Shanghai Red House (Western Women's and Children's) Hospital. Its first director was Prof. Chen Cuizhen (陈翠贞), a pioneer of Chinese pediatrics. The hospital began with an internal medicine (pediatrics) unit, later adding neonatal wards, hematology, infectious diseases and child health.
• Accredited as a tertiary (Class A) hospital in 1995; pediatrics listed as a national key discipline in 1996; approved as a National Children's Medical Center in 2017; approved as the National Pediatric Quality Control Center in 2020.
• Moved in 2008 from Fenglin Road to its main campus at No. 399 Wanyuan Road, Minhang District; the Fenglin Clinic (No. 130 Yixueyuan Road, Xuhui District) retains general pediatric internal medicine outpatient services.
• Scale: 1,000 authorized beds, 50 clinical and technical departments; over 2 million outpatient and emergency visits per year (recently about 2.3 million), nearly 50,000 discharges and 30,000 surgical procedures annually.
• Accredited by JCI with high scores through multiple re-surveys; twice named a National Civilized Unit and 11 times a Shanghai Civic Unit; received the 10th Shanghai Children's Work Magnolia Award in 2021.
• Leads the Fudan Pediatric Medical Alliance, a regional network of children's hospitals and pediatric departments.

Academic Credentials

• Pediatric internal medicine: consistently No. 1 nationwide in the Fudan Best Specialty Reputation Ranking; the hospital persistently among the top 50 general hospitals in China.
• National Key Clinical Specialties (7 — the most among China's children's hospitals): neonatology, critical care medicine, pediatric gastroenterology, traditional Chinese medicine pediatrics, pediatric surgery, clinical nursing, plus the Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases.
• National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Projects (7): transplant medicine, minimally invasive medicine, severe infection, pediatric cardiology, pediatric nephrology, pediatric oncology, pediatric neurology.
• Four NHCC (formerly Ministry of Health) key clinical disciplines: neonatology, surgery, cardiovascular, infectious diseases.
• Shanghai municipal list: Shanghai Priority Clinical Center (Pediatric Disease Clinical Medical Center); Shanghai "Top Priority" key disciplines (pediatrics, pediatric surgery); Shanghai Medical Key Discipline (neonatology); Shanghai Medical Leading Speciality (respiratory emergency care); Shanghai Public Health Priority Development Speciality (pediatric infectious diseases).
• Since 2021 the hospital has been building six major clinical centers (critical illness, neonatology, birth defects, hematology-oncology, infection/immunity, child development and rehabilitation) and six supporting platforms (transplant medicine, minimally invasive medicine, molecular medicine, critical care life support, medical imaging, and the clinical research center).

Subspecialties and Core Clinical Strengths

Neonatology (National Key Clinical Specialty)

• Supported by the NHCC Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases and a Shanghai Medical Key Discipline
• Functions as a Neonatal Consultation and Rescue Center and a Neonatal Congenital Heart Disease Screening and Treatment Center
• Covers preterm brain development and injury repair, neonatal genetic diseases and genetic diagnosis, and rescue of critically ill newborns

Pediatric Gastroenterology (National Key Clinical Specialty)

• Over 80,000 gastroenterology outpatient visits per year — the highest among China's children's hospitals
• Runs a pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) multidisciplinary clinic, plus special clinics for gastrointestinal allergy, constipation and enteral/gastrostomy tube care
• China's first pediatric IBD multidisciplinary team (MDT) and IBD research/treatment base; about 7,000 endoscopies per year, including more than 1,000 grade III–IV endoscopic procedures — the most among Shanghai's children's hospitals
• In 2014 performed pediatric peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM), successfully treating the then youngest child in the world (an 11-month-old girl)

Pediatric Cardiology (NHCC key discipline / National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project)

• Nationally leading in pediatric heart valve replacement, treatment of congenital heart disease, and treatment of precocious puberty in girls
• Special focus on Kawasaki disease coronary artery lesions, non-invasive diagnosis of congenital heart disease, etiology and early intervention

Pediatric Respiratory Medicine and Respiratory Emergency Care (Shanghai Medical Leading Speciality)

• Special clinics for asthma and related conditions, covering childhood asthma, chronic cough and respiratory emergencies

Pediatric Nephrology (National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project)

• Special center for pediatric kidney and urinary system diseases, covering renal/urinary tract malformations, hereditary kidney disease and kidney injury repair

Pediatric Neurology (National Key Clinical Specialty Construction Project)

• Epilepsy treatment center, covering epilepsy, neurogenetics, encephalitis, tic disorders and developmental disorders

Pediatric Endocrinology and Inherited Metabolic Diseases

• Covers short stature, precocious puberty, obesity, childhood diabetes, thyroid and adrenal disorders, and screening/management of inherited metabolic diseases

Pediatric Infectious Diseases (NHCC key discipline / Shanghai Public Health Priority Speciality)

• Covers clinical care and control of pediatric infectious and communicable diseases

Other Directions

• Pediatric hematology-oncology, child health and developmental-behavioral pediatrics (including early diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder), and traditional Chinese medicine pediatrics

Expert Team

• Huang Guoying (黄国英) — hospital president; pediatric cardiology: non-invasive diagnosis of congenital heart disease, etiology and early intervention; Kawasaki disease coronary artery lesions
• Wang Yi (王艺) — pediatric neurology: epilepsy, neurogenetics, whole-genome sequencing and disease phenotyping
• Xu Hong (徐虹) — pediatric nephrology: genetics of renal/urinary tract malformations, hereditary kidney disease
• Chen Chao (陈超) — neonatology: mechanisms and prevention of preterm white matter injury
• Huang Ying (黄瑛) — director of gastroenterology: pediatric IBD, pediatric endoscopy
• Wang Jianshe (王建设) — hereditary cholestasis and liver disease
• Luo Feihong (罗飞宏), Lu Wei, Zhi Dijing — pediatric endocrinology: short stature, precocious puberty, diabetes, inherited metabolic diseases
• Zhou Shuizhen (周水珍), Zhou Yuanfeng — pediatric neurology: epilepsy, tic disorders, developmental disorders
• The hospital chairs the Ministry of Education's Pediatrics Teaching Steering Committee, holds 7 doctoral and 10 master's degree programs, publishes the Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Pediatrics and Pediatric Medicine, and co-publishes the Chinese edition of Pediatrics with the American Academy of Pediatrics

Research and Platforms

• Over the past decade: 712 research projects with about RMB 590 million in funding; more than 1,800 high-impact papers in journals including Nature, The Lancet, Nat Genet, Cancer Cell, Circulation, Cell Res, Cell Stem Cell and JAMA Pediatrics; over 30 provincial/ministerial-level research awards
• The Pediatric Research Institute occupies a 16,000 m² research building housing the NHCC Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases and the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Birth Defect Prevention and Control, plus a large-cohort clinical epidemiology platform, a biobank for complex pediatric diseases, a genetic diagnosis platform and a model-animal platform
• International collaboration with 26 renowned medical institutions in the US, Canada and other countries/regions, and with 82 provincial-level institutions in China; the hospital hosts major international pediatric conferences
• Note: this introduction is compiled from the hospital's official website and public information from Fudan University's HR and Graduate School pages. No authoritative department-level annual outpatient or surgical volume is publicly available specifically for "pediatric internal medicine," so only hospital-wide figures and published subspecialty data are cited — no department-level numbers have been fabricated.

Clinics and Address

• Main campus: No. 399 Wanyuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai
• Fenglin Clinic: No. 130 Yixueyuan Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai (general pediatric internal medicine outpatient services)
• Gudai Road Clinic: 3/F, No. 805 Gudai Road, Minhang District, Shanghai
• Hospital phone: +86-21-64931990
• Website: https://ch.shmu.edu.cn/

If this department interests you, you may also want to read our pediatrics overview at Children's Hospital of Fudan University and our profile of child health care & developmental-behavioral pediatrics.

This article is compiled from the hospital's official website and publicly available information.