The Department of Rheumatology and Allergy in Xuanwu Hospital is a comprehensive department working on clinical service, medical education and scientific research. Professors Wang Jiarui, Yu Naichang and Zhu Daxun began to upgrade the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic and allergic diseases in 1978. Then Professors Liu Shu and Li Xiaoxia developed and strengthened the department. The Rheumatology Department and the Allergy Department were separately established in 1992, and combined to form the Department of Rheumatology and Allergy in 2005. At present, the department is comprised of twenty-one staff members with ten doctors (two chief physicians, six physicians with doctoral degree, two with master degree), nine nurses and two laboratory technicians. There are twenty inpatient beds and more than six hundred and fifty patients are treated in the ward per year. The department specializes in diagnosing and treating all kinds of rheumatic diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome, polymyositis or dermatomyositis, systemic sclerosis, seronegative spondyloarthropathies, various kinds of systemic vasculitis, gout, osteoarthritis and allergic disease .

The following clinics have been set up: general rheumatology clinic, allergy clinic and four special clinics (systemic lupus erythematosus, glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, gout and Takayasu disease). There are more than thirty-five thousand outpatient visits per year. The laboratory of our department conducts rheumatology tests including detection of anti-CCP antibody, anti-α-fodrin antibody and plasma allergens in vitro. More than five thousand tests are done per year. Intra-articular injections of sodium hyaluronate, glucocorticoid and tumor necrosis factor-α antagonist for treatment of knee osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis are in operation. In addition, a joint clinic run by the rheumatology and ophthalmology departments has been set up to treat ophthalmic-related rheumatic diseases.

Many research projects have been carried out in the department, including those funded by the National Nature and Science Foundation, Beijing Nature and Science Foundation, Basic-clinical Foundation of Capital Medical University and subsidiary projects of “the Eleventh Five-Year" development plan for science and technology and National 863 Program. The department workers have been awarded many first, second, and third class prizes of the Beijing Scientific and Technological Advancement Commission. The staff have published nearly one hundred scientific papers in Chinese or English, The department is a site for the National Clinical Center for Drug Research, a clinical teaching base of the Capital Medical University, a resident doctor training center, a rheumatology examination unit, and a master degree training center for the general practitioner of Beijing city.

Unity, pragmatism, strictness and innovation are our watchwords. In the spirit that the department is our family and the patients are our kith and kin, the staff try their best to provide a patient-centered medical service.