On May 26, 2023, the awarding ceremony of excellent affiliations of "Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Interstitial Lung Disease" in conjunction with "National Key R&D Program for Precision Medicine Research Project-a cohort study of respiratory diseases (2016YFC0901100)" were held in Beijing. These events were jointly hosted by Interstitial lung Disease Collaboration Group of Medical Cluster for Respiratory Diseases and Expert Committee of Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment System Construction Project for Interstitial lung Disease (ILD). The First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi 'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) was approved as one of the first-batch national excellent affiliations of Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Interstitial Lung Disease.

ILD is a complex heterogeneous disease with nonspecific clinical manifestations, complex and diverse imaging and pathological changes, which is involved with multiple disciplines. The heterogeneity and complexity of ILD negatively affect clinical diagnosis and treatment decisionmaking, which has become the main difficult disease in respiratory specialty and a severe challenge for respiratory physicians. Although great progress has been achieved in understanding and clinical diagnosis of ILD in recent years, the overall level of understanding of this disease remains limited. The nursing care system and capability of ILD are "insufficient, fragmented, unbalanced and heterogeneous". Therefore, National Center for Respiratory Medicine and Medical Cluster for Respiratory Diseases hope to spread the knowledge and management norms of ILD through the "Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment System and Capacity Improvement for Interstitial Lung Disease Construction Project", aiming to deepen the overall understanding and enhance diagnosis and treatment levels of ILD in China.

The FAH of XJTU is one of the first institutions carrying out standardized diagnosis and treatment for ILD in northwest China. In 2022, it successfully passed the evaluation of National Standardized Diagnosis and Treatment Center for Interstitial Lung Disease, and the standardized diagnosis and treatment system for ILD has been continually improved. In recent years, Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and Treatment Center for ILD, which is composed of multidisciplinary experts from Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Pathology, Department of Radiology, Department of Thoracic Surgery and Clinical Laboratory, has delivered accurate diagnoses for multiple complex and difficult ILD, such as idiopathic pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, nonspecific interstitial pneumonia, cryptogenic organizing pneumonia, desquamative interstitial pneumonia, lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia, sarcoidosis, ANCA-related vasculitis, ABPA, PLCH, LAM, PAP and PPFE, etc., which significantly enhanced the diagnosis and treatment levels for ILD in northwest China.