Cardiology
Overview
Department of Cardiology of Wuxi No.2 People's Hospital (Jiangnan University Medical Center) is a Provincial Key Clinical Specialty and a nationally certified Chest Pain Center. It is a key characteristic specialty prioritized by Wuxi Municipal Government, the earliest provincial-level key clinical specialty in Wuxi, and the Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Cardiovascular Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Center of Wuxi. It is also a key characteristic specialty jointly developed by Wuxi Hospital Management Center. It ranks among the first batch of hospitals in Jiangsu Province qualified for interventional cardiology procedures in Wuxi area. The department houses the Academician Ge Junbo Workstation, serves as a master's degree training and authorization base, and holds the title of National Youth Civilization Unit.
The South Campus has 2 general wards and 1 cardiac intensive care ward with a total of 89 beds; the North Campus is equipped with 1 cardiology ward containing 39 beds. There are 3 cardiac catheterization laboratories (general cardiac catheterization lab, pacing and electrophysiology lab) in the South Campus and 1 cardiac catheterization laboratory in the North Campus, equipped with world-class ECG monitoring systems and emergency rescue equipment. Its cardiac function division is fully furnished with complete facilities including cardiac color Doppler ultrasound room, electrocardiogram room, exercise treadmill test room, head-up tilt test laboratory, cardiovascular disease research laboratory and central laboratory.
Currently, the department has 38 professional medical staff, including 3 academic leaders: 15 senior chief physicians, 12 associate chief physicians, 8 attending physicians and 3 resident physicians. Among the talents, there is 1 recipient of Special Government Allowance of the State Council, 1 high-level talent of Jiangsu Provincial Six Major Talent Peaks Project, 3 candidates of the Third-tier Training Program of Jiangsu Provincial 333 Talent Project, 1 leading talent of Wuxi Taihu Talent Program, 1 outstanding young talent, 1 key medical talent of Wuxi City and 2 young medical talents. There are 1 doctoral supervisor and 5 master supervisors.
Treatment Scope
The department boasts strong professional strength in the diagnosis and treatment of common cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, rheumatic heart disease, arrhythmia, heart failure, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy and congenital heart disease. It is highly proficient in managing various complicated and intractable cardiovascular disorders. The mortality rate of critically ill cardiovascular patients treated here is close to the lowest domestic level. It accumulates rich clinical experience in the treatment of fulminant myocarditis, severe shock and multiple organ dysfunction failure.
Technical advantages
The department performs over 2,000 coronary interventional surgeries annually. It is capable of conducting balloon dilatation and drug-eluting stent implantation as well as coronary rotational atherectomy for complex coronary lesions including left main coronary artery lesions, chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesions, bifurcation lesions and multi-vessel lesions. It also carries out stent-free coronary therapies such as drug-coated balloon dilation and biodegradable stent implantation.
Equipped with the most comprehensive intracavitary imaging and functional evaluation tools including Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS), it effectively facilitates precise interventional therapy. In collaboration with the 120 emergency system, it has established a city-wide chest pain center service model, extending standardized emergency treatment for acute myocardial infarction to community medical networks, saving countless patients via emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
In addition, more than 500 cardiac pacing and electrophysiological surgeries are completed every year. The department has mature intracardiac electrophysiology techniques and independently performs complex radiofrequency ablation procedures, including ablation and cryoablation for atrial fibrillation, as well as surgeries for atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia with multiple accessory pathways, paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, atrial flutter, idiopathic left ventricular tachycardia and premature ventricular contractions.
It is skilled in implanting single-chamber pacemakers, dual-chamber pacemakers, triple-chamber pacemakers for atrial fibrillation and heart failure treatment, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, leadless pacemakers, physiological pacemakers and long-term ECG monitors, reaching advanced domestic standards.
Research achievements
In recent years, the department has achieved remarkable progress in academic research, innovative medical technologies and academic papers. It has undertaken nearly 20 research projects including National Natural Science Foundation projects, major provincial clinical medical research projects, national key special projects of the 12th Five-Year Plan and provincial-level scientific research programs.
It has won 3 Wuxi Municipal Science and Technology Progress Awards (1 Second Prize and 2 Third Prizes) and 7 First and Second Prizes of New Technology Introduction Awards issued by Jiangsu Provincial Health Commission. Within five years, the department has published over 300 academic papers, including more than 40 SCI-indexed papers, 35 papers in Chinese core medical journals sponsored by Chinese Medical Association, and 145 papers in other core statistical source journals. The department is accredited as National Chest Pain Center and National Atrial Fibrillation Center. It acts as the leading unit of Wuxi City Chest Pain Center Alliance, Wuxi Branch of Hypertension Specialized Medical Alliance of National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, and a member unit of National Heart Failure Medical Alliance.
It is the earliest provincial key clinical specialty of cardiology in Wuxi, one of the first batch of interventional therapy qualified hospitals in Jiangsu Province, and the leading unit of Wuxi Cardiovascular Disease Quality Control Center. It is also the co-built provincial and municipal cardiovascular medicine innovation team under Wuxi Medical Talent Development Program, the only demonstration window of National Youth Civilization Unit in Wuxi, and the sole Cardiovascular Academician Workstation (Academician Ge Junbo) in Wuxi. Its innovative research and transformation of the city-wide national chest pain center model has been awarded the Wuxi Tengfei Science and Technology Award.