The Specialty of Nephrology of Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Second Medical University was established in 1965 and in 1976 became an independent department. Now it has four divisions: clinical medicine, pathology, laboratory and dialysis, is one of the departments of nephrology established the earliest at home and the best supplied and is now the key discipline of medical leading specialties of Bureau of Public Health of Shanghai Municipality.

At present the Department has 20 physicians of nephrology specialty including 3 full professors, 10 associate professors, 3 visiting physicians and 4 resident physicians, among whom over 90% of the physicians have the background of being masters or Ph.D and nearly 50% of the physicians have studied in Britain, France, the United States, Japan and other countries, having formed an echelon of the middle-aged and young physicians of “devotion, cooperation and striving”. The Department has 50 fixed sickbeds, 22 imported dialysers, 1 plasma displacement apparatus, 3 bedside continuous venous filters, 2 peritoneal dialysers and 1 immunoadsorbent apparatus.

“Taking the patients as the center and the enhancement of therapeutic quality as the target” has always been the aim of the construction of our Department. Since the establishment of the Department a large number of victims with nephropathy have been admitted into the Department for treatment. The first case of renal tubular acidosis was reported at home (1958), macroglobulinemia (1992), light chain sedimentary disease (1994) and genetic hyperoxaluria were confirmed by renopuncture and the first case of Liddle syndrome and collagen Ⅲ nephropathy pedigree were discovered. Up to now the Department has collected a lot of cases of renal tubular acidosis, primary nephritic syndrome, sicca syndrome renal injury, lupus nephritis, necrotic vasculitis, abnormal globulinemia and genetic nephritis etc., gradually forming the therapeutic distinctive features represented by the treatment of secondary renal injury (lupus nephritis, sicca syndrome renal injury, necrotic vasculitis, abnormal globulinemia renal injury etc.), acute and chronic renal failure, genetic nephrology, renal tubule interstitial disease and nephritic syndrome. The Department was the first at home to carry out strictly designed and looking-forward research in clinical diagnosis and treatment of acute renal failure with its related mortality rate and curative rate reaching the international level. The Department won successively for its related research fruits a second Prize of Chinese Prize, a first Prize for Progress in Science and Technology of Shanghai Municipality and a first Prize for Medical Science and Technology in Shanghai. Our Department was one of the earliest departments of nephrology at home that were the first to carry out blood purification techniques such as dialysis, peritoneal dialysis, plasma displacement, CRRT and immunoadsorption. In addition our Department was also one of the earliest sections at home that carried out renopuncture and up to now it has accumulated over 6000 specimens of renal tissue. The renal laboratory has established a whole set of examination of functions of renal tubules and glomerulus, providing reliable grounds for the clinical discovery and diagnosis of nephropathy. Superb therapeutic level and first-class quality of service attract victims with nephropathy across the country to come to the Department for medical treatment with the result that the number of the patients of special O.P.D and for hospitalization is increasing year by year, the number of the patients of both O.P.D and emergency department has reached 80,000～90,000 persons annually and the number of persons discharged from hospital exceeds 2,000 person-times annually. Our Department was successively rated as one of the “one hundred good sections” for vocational virtue construction of the staff members nationwide and an advanced collective at the level of both the Hospital and University etc..

The research of pathogenesis of interstitial fibrosis, earlier intervention of chronic renal failure and molecular pathogenesis of genetic nephropathy such as Alport syndrome, Fabry’s disease, familial IgA nephropathy is the focal point and distinctive features of the research of our Department and the Department has successively won a first and a second Prize for Progress in Science and Technology of Shanghai Municipality and a first Prize for Progress in Science and Technology of Science of Technology Prize of the State nominated by Ministry of Education etc. for their related research products.

As an academic degree conferring place for the first batch of Ph.D and masters of the specialty of nephrology at home the Department now has 1 director of Ph. D students and 4 directors of master students, having successively trained 15 Ph. D students and 42 master students. One is included in the Training Program for the One Hundred Excellent Cross-century Leading Persons in the System of Health of Shanghai Municipality and one is included in the Training Program for Young Science and Technology Venuses of Shanghai Municipality. The Department has successively won 24 research projects including 2 projects of State Natural Science Fund, 18 projects of Funds at the provincial and ministerial levels and 1 project of European Community Fund. Over 300 papers have been published in famous journals both at home and abroad and SCI included 22 papers. Several members of the Department successively held many important academic posts including those of council member of Asian Pacific Region of International Nephrology Association, director member of Nephrology Society of Chinese Medical Association, director member of Shanghai Nephrology Association. At present one person is holding the post of managing member of Nephrology Society of Chinese Medical Association and deputy director member of Shanghai Nephrology Association and two persons are members of Shanghai Nephrology Association.