The Neonatal Medical Center of the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University was established in 1953. It is recognized as a National Key Clinical Specialty, a National Specialty in Neonatal Healthcare, a National Training Base for Neonatologists, and the Shanghai Center for the Consultation and Rescue of Critically Ill Newborns. It also serves as the host institution for the National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Neonatal Diseases, the Chinese Neonatal Network (CHNN), and the Shanghai Neonatal Clinical Quality Control Center.
The Center has 205 approved beds across six clinical units, including 90 NICU beds. The team comprises 44 neonatologists and 165 nurses, including 9 chief physicians, 11 associate chief physicians, 5 doctoral supervisors, and 4 master’s supervisors. Annually, the center admits approximately 4,000 newborns and transports over 1,000 critically ill infants. It manages a wide range of complex and severe neonatal conditions, providing advanced life support techniques such as respiratory management, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
Pioneered in China the use of pulmonary surfactant for the treatment of neonatal respiratory distress syndrome; implemented inhaled nitric oxide therapy for neonatal pulmonary hypertension; introduced therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy; applied exchange transfusion for hemolytic disease of the newborn; successfully rescued an extremely preterm infant born at 22+2 weeks’ gestation (the lowest gestational age survivor in Shanghai) and a preterm infant with severe coarctation of the aortic arch with the lowest birth weight reported nationally; and performed the first bullectomy for an extremely preterm infant in China.
In recent years, the department has undertaken key projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and major national science and technology research programs. It has received several prestigious awards, including the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award, the Soong Ching Ling Pediatric Medicine Award, and the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award.
Faculty members have held leading positions in national academic organizations, including Vice Chair of the Perinatal Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, Head and Deputy Head of the Neonatology Group of the Pediatrics Branch, Vice President of the Neonatology Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and Chair of the Perinatal Medicine Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association. The department has also led the compilation of authoritative texts such as Practical Neonatology and the nationally planned textbook Neonatology.