China's Top Departments: Nephrology at Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (Guangzhou)

For readers in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and worldwide: if you or a loved one is living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) — IgA nephropathy, nephrotic syndrome, lupus nephritis or declining kidney function — and hoping to slow progression and avoid or delay dialysis, the Department of Nephrology at Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University in Guangzhou is one of the most authoritative kidney disease centers in China. It hosts the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease and is the department of CAS Academician Hou Fanfan, whose NEJM-published research changed how advanced CKD is treated worldwide.

About the Hospital

Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (also known as the First Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University) was founded in 1941. It is a large, comprehensive Grade 3A hospital, one of China's "Top 100 Hospitals," and a designated exporting hospital for the development of national regional medical centers.

In the Fudan Version of the 2023 China Hospital Ranking, Nanfang Hospital was rated A++++ (the highest tier) — one of only two hospitals in Guangdong Province to reach it. In the 2023 Fudan Specialty Reputation Ranking, the hospital had eight specialties ranked among the national top ten, including infectious diseases, laboratory medicine, anesthesiology, hematology, pathology, gastroenterology and plastic surgery — and among them nephrology (kidney disease) is one of the hospital's traditional strengths.

• Main campus: No. 1838 Guangzhou Avenue North, Jingxi Street, Baiyun District, Guangzhou — a garden-style campus at the eastern foot of Baiyun Mountain, right at the metro station "Jingxi Nanfang Hospital"
• Zengcheng campus: No. 28 Chuangxin Avenue, Ningxi Street, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou
• Access: Guangzhou is the transport hub of South China, easily reached via Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed rail link (from Hong Kong West Kowloon), making the hospital convenient for patients from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas

International Services

Nanfang Hospital is one of the earliest public hospitals in China to provide international medical services. Its international service dates back to the "Huiqiao Building" established in 1979 (now the Huiqiao Medical Center) — China's first center for foreign-related medical services, known as "China's No. 1 building for international medical services."

• The Huiqiao Medical Center is the largest independent international medical center in China, pioneering a "medical care + tourism" model and an integrated "general practice + specialty" international service model
• Its international medical service network covers 92 countries and regions worldwide, with over 260,000 patient visits
• In March 2026, Nanfang Hospital was selected among the first batch of Guangdong Province pilot hospitals for international medical services

In nephrology specifically, roughly half of the patients seen in the "famous expert clinic" of department head Prof. Hou Fanfan come from outside Guangdong — including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States and Australia. The department leads multiple international multicenter clinical trials (such as the SONAR study of the diabetic kidney disease drug atrasentan) and has established a renal pathology teleconsultation center in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital. For patients from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and beyond, the hospital offers well-established international care pathways and one-stop, general-plus-specialty services.

About the Department

The Department of Nephrology was established in 1989 and developed under two generations of academic leaders — Prof. Zhang Xun (张训) and Prof. Hou Fanfan (侯凡凡). It is now the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease and one of the leading kidney disease centers in South China and across the country. The department comprises four parts: a clinical center, a blood purification center, a renal pathology diagnostic center and a kidney disease research center.

Academic platforms and designations include:

• National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease
• State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research (co-built by the Ministry and the Province)
• National Clinical Pharmacology Base / National Drug Clinical Trial (GCP) Site — among the first GCP sites accredited nationally, in 1998
• Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology (established at Nanfang Hospital in 2010)
• Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research of the Ministry of Education; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Renal Failure Research; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nephrology
• Doctoral degree authorization site and a major discipline of the clinical medicine postdoctoral mobile station

Scale (per publicly available figures):

• 86 inpatient beds; total department area of about 10,000 m² (about 5,500 m² clinical and 4,500 m² laboratory)
• The blood purification center has 83 hemodialysis machines, 11 CRRT machines and 3 sets of advanced international water treatment systems
• The renal pathology diagnostic center performs over 1,000 kidney biopsies and over 700 pathology consultations each year; the kidney tissue bank holds 20,000 samples
• 148 staff, of whom 48 are in the medical/research core series — including 12 full senior titles, 14 associate senior titles and 8 doctoral supervisors

Academic Standing

• Nephrology ranked among the national top ten in the Fudan China Hospital Specialty Reputation Ranking (2023), and No. 2 nationwide in nephrology in the 2022 Fudan China Hospital Specialty Comprehensive Ranking
• National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease and State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research
• National Clinical Pharmacology Base / National Drug Clinical Trial (GCP) Site — among the first batch accredited nationally in 1998
• Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology, Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research of the Ministry of Education, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Renal Failure Research
• The team has received the National Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Class), the National Science Fund for Creative Research Groups and the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award (First Class); department head Prof. Hou Fanfan received the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Pioneer Award in 2025
• The talent pool includes 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2 national "Thousand Talents" scholars, 3 National Science Fund for Distinguished/Excellent Young Scholars awardees, 2 national "Ten Thousand Talents" experts and 2 Pearl River Scholars

Core Technologies and Specialized Care

Kidney preservation and slowing CKD progression — at the international frontier

1. ACE inhibitors for advanced CKD — a world-first confirmation — Through randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled research, Prof. Hou Fanfan's team was the first in the world to confirm that angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) effectively slow the progression of advanced non-diabetic chronic kidney disease, reducing the risk of progression to uremia by 43% and more than doubling the time to dialysis. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 2006, accompanied by an editorial stating that "it is time to change our treatment strategy for chronic kidney disease." Related achievements have delayed the progression of advanced CKD to uremia by 3 to 5 years
2. Folic acid supplementation — The team confirmed that folic acid supplementation can reduce the risk of loss of kidney function by 56% in people with hypertension and kidney disease — a low-cost, highly effective preventive option
3. IgA nephropathy — Against the international guideline recommendation against immunosuppressants for IgA nephropathy, the team showed (2023) that in Chinese patients with IgA nephropathy, immunosuppressive therapy significantly reduces proteinuria, protects kidney function and lowers the risk of progression to uremia
4. Early urate-lowering therapy — Research confirmed that early urate-lowering treatment significantly improves kidney outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease
5. Risk prediction and early diagnosis — Tailored to Chinese patients, the team created new methods for risk prediction and early diagnosis of acute and chronic kidney injury (AKI/CKD)

Other core areas of care

• Blood purification and renal replacement therapy: hemodialysis, hemodiafiltration, hemoperfusion, plasma exchange, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), peritoneal dialysis (including automated peritoneal dialysis, APD) and more
• Renal pathology diagnosis: over 1,000 kidney biopsies and over 700 pathology consultations annually, a 20,000-sample tissue bank, and a pathology teleconsultation center established with Massachusetts General Hospital
• Dialysis-related complications: the team elucidated the mechanism of dialysis-related amyloidosis (DRA), proposed the "in situ modification theory," established a non-invasive diagnostic method for DRA, and treats complications such as secondary hyperparathyroidism
• New drug development: developed the new drug "Niaoduqing" for chronic renal failure, which received a national new drug certificate
• International multicenter clinical trials: leads or participates in trials including the diabetic kidney disease drug atrasentan (SONAR, with Prof. Hou Fanfan as global coordinating principal investigator), a dapagliflozin renal outcomes study, hyperphosphatemia in CKD, and anemia in dialysis patients

Expert Team

• Prof. Hou Fanfan (侯凡凡): Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS); Director of the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Disease, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, and Director of the Department of Nephrology at Nanfang Hospital; chief physician, professor and doctoral supervisor. She serves as Vice Chair of the Chinese Society of Nephrology, Vice President of the Nephrology Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and a member of the KDIGO guideline work group. As first author/principal contributor she has received three National Science and Technology Progress Awards (Second Class) and six provincial/ministerial first-class science and technology awards, plus the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Progress Award and the ISN Pioneer Award (2025). She specializes in acute and chronic nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, lupus nephritis, primary and secondary kidney diseases, acute and chronic renal failure, and blood purification
• Prof. Zhang Xun (张训): chief physician, professor and doctoral supervisor; one of the department's founding academic leaders; specializes in refractory nephrotic syndrome and acute/chronic renal insufficiency
• Prof. Jiang Jianping (蒋建平): chief physician and professor; specializes in various glomerular diseases and acute/chronic renal failure, highly skilled in kidney biopsy and peritoneal dialysis catheter placement; expertise also includes critical care, CRRT and hemodialysis
• Prof. Liu Jun (刘俊): chief physician and professor; 28 years in nephrology; specializes in glomerular diseases and acute/chronic renal failure, with particular expertise in severe systemic lupus erythematosus and critical kidney disease
• Dr. Liang Min (梁敏): Deputy Director of the Department of Nephrology, Nanfang Hospital
• Dr. Zhou Lili (周丽丽): Second-tier research fellow and doctoral/postdoctoral supervisor at the department; National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars awardee; PI at the State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research; Chair of the Nephrology Branch of the Guangdong Precision Medicine Application Society

(Titles and appointments are subject to the hospital's latest official information.)

Suitable Conditions

• Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at any stage, especially those seeking to slow progression and preserve kidney function with individualized plans
• Primary glomerular diseases such as IgA nephropathy and nephrotic syndrome
• Secondary kidney diseases such as lupus nephritis, vasculitis-related kidney damage, diabetic kidney disease and hypertensive kidney damage
• Acute kidney injury (AKI), acute/chronic renal failure and critical kidney disease
• End-stage kidney disease requiring hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or other renal replacement therapy, including vascular access creation
• Hereditary kidney disease, urinary tract infections, and dialysis-related complications (such as dialysis-related amyloidosis and secondary hyperparathyroidism)

Address and Contact

• Main campus: No. 1838 Guangzhou Avenue North, Jingxi Street, Baiyun District, Guangzhou (metro station "Jingxi Nanfang Hospital")
• Zengcheng campus: No. 28 Chuangxin Avenue, Ningxi Street, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou
• Department of Nephrology: 2nd floor, Xiaohua Building, main campus (subject to the hospital's latest official guidance)
• Main switchboard: 020-61641114; Appointment line: 020-61641888
• Website: http://www.nfyy.com
• International services: Huiqiao Medical Center (Huiqiao Building), established in 1979 — China's first center for foreign-related medical services

For another signature specialty at the same hospital, see our infectious diseases (liver center) at Nanfang Hospital spotlight. For kidney care in East China, see our nephrology at Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai spotlight.

This information is compiled from the official website of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University and public reports. It is for reference only; the hospital's latest official information shall prevail.