The Department of Emergency Medicine was established in 1984, became an independent clinical discipline in 1987, was designated as a National Clinical Key Specialty Construction Project in 2012, and recognized as a Guangdong Provincial High-Level Specialty Construction Project in 2019. It has now developed into a leading domestic center for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and critical illnesses. The department currently operates at both the Main Hospital Campus and the Southern Campus, with plans to expand to three new campuses in Haizhu, Huadu, and Shenshan in the future. It is responsible for pre-hospital emergency services in the region, with emergency visit volumes ranking among the highest in Guangzhou, exceeding 300,000 annually. Its operational scope consists of multiple interconnected units, including pre-hospital emergency care, the emergency consultation area, resuscitation rooms, emergency observation areas, the general emergency inpatient ward, and the Emergency Intensive Care Unit (EICU), forming an efficient treatment system. The key disciplinary focuses are cardiopulmonary cerebral resuscitation and critical care medicine. The department boasts a professional and dedicated team of medical and nursing staff, with most physicians holding doctoral or master's degrees, enabling the provision of comprehensive, efficient, and specialized treatment for various acute and critical conditions. It is equipped with a range of advanced diagnostic, therapeutic, and monitoring devices, capable of independently performing rapid bedside testing, bedside blood purification therapy, mechanical ventilation, bedside fiberoptic bronchoscopy, and other diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
In research, the department has established an internationally leading platform for cardiopulmonary resuscitation research and translation. It has received 2 Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Awards, secured 6 national-level and 16 provincial/ministerial-level research projects, and published over 70 SCI-indexed papers and more than 150 papers in domestic journals. The department has also served as the chief editor for 3 editions of the Emergency Medicine textbook under the 12th Five-Year Plan. Current research directions include:
(1) Achievements in mitochondrial function protection and the protective effects of CPR and mild therapeutic hypothermia on myocardial and cerebral neural cells post-CPR, resulting in the publication of over 10 SCI papers.
(2) Independent development of an animal resuscitation device (invention patent) and a basic research platform for cardiopulmonary resuscitation, establishing a standardized animal model for cardiopulmonary cerebral resuscitation.
(3) Establishment of a remote real-time vital information monitoring center and a "Family-Community-Hospital" integrated new healthcare and emergency network platform to achieve comprehensive prevention and treatment of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death within the region. This work has received the Third Prize of the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award and the Third Prize of the Huaxia Medical Science and Technology Award.
(4) Research on the protection of the myocardium and other vital organs in sepsis through the establishment of standardized animal models for severe sepsis, resulting in the publication of 5 SCI papers.
(5) Development of a device (invention patent) for intelligent recognition of ventricular fibrillation waveforms and optimization of defibrillation timing by establishing a standardized large animal model of cardiac arrest, building a biological database of cardiac arrest electrocardiographic signals, and leveraging interdisciplinary integration of medicine and engineering. This has yielded partial research outcomes and the publication of over 10 SCI papers.
Teaching work complements medical care and research, with the "three pillars" of clinical service, education, and research advancing together on the path of comprehensive development. As the site of the Sun Yat-sen University Emergency Medicine Teaching and Research Section, the department is responsible for training undergraduates, master's, and doctoral students. It has long been in charge of teaching Emergency Medicine for five-year undergraduate students (elective), eight-year direct doctoral students (required), international MBBS students, and postgraduate courses at Sun Yat-sen University. The Emergency Medicine course was recognized as a Guangdong Provincial Elite Course in 2014. Over the past five years, three faculty members have received the "Ye Rengao-Li Youji" Couple Clinical Medicine Outstanding Young and Mid-Career Teacher Award - Excellent Teacher Award, three have been honored with the "Sun Yat-sen University Outstanding Clinical Instructor" title, and five have served as instructors for the Sun Yat-sen University Intern Clinical Skills Competition, winning the first prize. As one of the first units at Sun Yat-sen University to train master's and doctoral students in emergency medicine, the department has trained 19 doctoral students and 32 master's students over the past decade since obtaining authorization, supplying a significant number of emergency medicine specialists to society. In standardized residency training, the department is a training base for emergency medicine resident physicians/specialists and also serves as a Guangdong Provincial Advanced Resident Physician Standardized Training Mentor Training Base. In June and August 2019, it hosted two sessions of the "Guangdong Provincial Standardized Residency Training Emergency Specialty Base Mentor Training Workshop," laying a solid foundation for establishing and improving the mentor team for emergency specialty residency training in Guangdong. In continuing education, the department is a national-level continuing education base. For over 30 years, it has repeatedly conducted national and provincial-level continuing education courses in emergency medicine, training over a hundred emergency medicine trainees from across the country. Key teaching achievements include serving as chief editor for more than 10 emergency medicine monographs, 8 of which are National Health Commission/People's Medical Publishing House planning textbooks, with 6 as chief editor; securing 3 university-level and 1 hospital-level teaching reform projects over the past five years; and publishing 4 teaching articles.
Since 2017, the discipline has been consecutively nominated in the Annual Chinese Hospital Specialty Reputation Rankings released by the Fudan University Hospital Management Institute and selected for two consecutive years in the "Strongest Department Recommendations" list for Guangdong Province organized by Guangzhou Daily. Currently, it is the site of the Sun Yat-sen University Emergency Medicine Teaching and Research Section, a training base for emergency medicine resident physicians/specialists, a Guangdong Provincial Advanced Resident Physician Standardized Training Mentor Training Base, a National Continuing Education Base (having trained trainees nationwide for 30 years), and an American Heart Association-authorized Cardiovascular Emergency Training Center. The department also holds the following positions: Vice Chair Unit of the Emergency Medicine Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, Vice Chair Unit of the China Emergency Medicine Alliance, Chair Unit of the Emergency Physician Branch of the Guangdong Medical Doctor Association, and the editorial office of the Lingnan Emergency Medicine Journal is located within the department.
The nursing team is highly capable, consisting of 86 primary-level title holders (70%), 32 intermediate-level title holders (28%), and 1 senior-level title holder (1%). Since its establishment as a department of Sun Yat-sen University affiliated hospital, it has undertaken clinical nursing teaching for Sun Yat-sen University Medical College while also serving as a clinical instructor for nursing students from 11 other external schools. It possesses extensive clinical teaching experience, instructing over a hundred students annually, with standardized teaching objectives, plans, facilities, and instructors. From 2014 to 2019, it was consistently rated as an outstanding teaching ward, with multiple instructors recognized as outstanding clinical instructors. The nursing team led 3 nursing research projects of the Guangdong Nursing Association in 2019, secured 4 hospital-level nursing research funds, obtained funding for 2 scientific research projects, acquired 4 utility model patents, and actively authored 87 nursing papers published in domestic and international core journals over five years, including 1 SCI paper.