On January 26, the Shaanxi Provincial Health Commission issued the “Notice on the Announcement of Approval Decisions and Midterm Evaluation Results for Certain Provincial Clinical Key Specialty Development Programs”. Three specialties from the First Affiliated Hospital (FAH) of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) were selected for the seventh batch of Shaanxi provincial clinical key specialty development programs: the Department of Pain Medicine, the Department of Plastic and Cosmetic Maxillofacial Surgery and the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery. In addition, the Department of Ultrasound Medicine, a specialty included in the fifth batch of provincial clinical key specialty development programs, successfully passed the midterm evaluation. To date, the FAH has two national key disciplines, 27 national clinical key specialty development programs, and 15 provincial clinical key specialty development programs.
Under the leadership of the department directors, the three disciplines have achieved notable progress in recent years in implementing new medical techniques and technologies, developing subspecialties, and strengthening talent teams.
The Department of Pain Medicine has demonstrated outstanding outcomes in non-surgical treatment of pain disorders and has established a comprehensive pain diagnosis and treatment system that serves Northwest China and extends its reach nationwide. Focusing on a range of rare, difficult, critical, and unexplained pain conditions, the department has developed a series of distinctive therapeutic techniques. In particular, its approach of manual reduction combined with intrathecal drug-based interventional therapy for lumbar intervertebral disc herniation is especially distinctive, with the technique ranking among the leading level in China.
The Department of Plastic and Cosmetic Maxillofacial Surgery is a clinical discipline established to high standards in 2016, and has reached advanced domestic and even international levels in areas such as trauma reconstruction and aesthetic suturing, cleft lip and palate repair, cranio-maxillofacial plastic surgery, wound treatment, and organ reconstruction (e.g., auricular and nasal reconstruction). The department has maintained long-term collaboration with charitable foundations such as Smile Tomorrow, Smile Asia, Mother’s Smile, and Happy Smile, providing free surgeries for more than 200 patients with cleft lip and palate each year and earning widespread public recognition.
The Department of Cardiovascular Surgery is among the earliest institutions in China to perform operations involving the heart, pericardium, and arterial ducts. At present, the department provides comprehensive services across a full spectrum of complex cardiovascular surgical diagnosis and treatment, such as minimally invasive cardiac surgery, da Vinci robot-assisted cardiac surgery, total arterial coronary artery bypass grafting, major vascular surgery, and heart transplantation, with its overall capabilities ranking among the advanced level both in China and internationally. Over the past seven years, the department has achieved “explosive” growth, charting a new chapter in the development of cardiovascular surgery through robust performance metrics and outstanding clinical strength.
