West China School of Medicine/West China Hospital, Sichuan University (WCSM/WCH, SCU) was founded in 1892 and recognized as a national general hospital and a diagnosis and treatment center for complex and critical illnesses, as well as a renowned medical school in China. WCH is also a national base for top-tier medical research and technological innovation.

WCH boasts a strong and comprehensive range of medical disciplines and ranks highly in the world for clinical medicine, according to the Essential Science Indicators (ESI, top 0.5‰). The hospital is home to 9 national key disciplines, two key cultivation disciplines, and 39 national key clinical specialties, making it the hospital with the highest number of such designations in the country. It has received the highest rating of A++ in the National Performance Evaluation of Public Tertiary Hospitals for 5 consecutive years. It has been consistently ranked second among the best hospitals in China by Fudan University for 14 straight years.  

Medical Care

The hospital has two directly affiliated medical campuses, 4300 beds, 54 clinical departments (including 7 specialized disease centers). It has set up over 200 specialty clinics and specialized disease clinics, and carried out 88 complex and multidisciplinary joint clinics and 79 inpatient MDT programs.

In 2023, the WCH saw a staggering 8.78 million patients for outpatient and emergency visits. The hospital successfully discharged 351, 000 inpatients and performed an impressive 251, 000 surgeries, with an average length of stay (ALOS) of 7.23 days. A significant proportion of patients admitted to the hospital, over 80%, had severe and complex medical conditions. This is reflected in the hospital’s high Case Mix Index (CMI) of 1.52, which places it among the top in the country. The hospital’s expertise in minimally invasive surgeries is evident, with 25.24% of all surgeries performed using this method. Additionally, the hospital’s fourth-level surgeries accounted for 37.61% of all surgeries, with an annual total that placed it third in the country.

WCH is a leader in adult living donor liver transplantation, lung cancer surgery and mini-invasive therapy, cardiac intervention, neurosurgery, minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery, clinical anesthesia, FMRI, nuclear medicine, etc.

Medical Education

WCH/WCSM has a competency-based education system for aspiring medical students, encompassing undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs. Our undergraduate education program offers six majors, including Clinical Medicine (in 5-Year and 8-Year programs), Nursing, Medical Imaging Technology, Rehabilitation Therapy, Laboratory Science and Medical Technology, and Optometry and Vision Science. Our graduate education program boasts four first-level disciplines: Clinical Medicine, Integration of Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nursing, and Medical Technology. It offers a wide range of master’s and doctoral degree programs, with 68 programs for the former and 67 for the latter. The school has a vibrant student population, with more than 6700 students enrolled.

WCH/WCSM places great importance on training clinical competence and innovation ability for medical students. Our students have won numerous awards, including the silver medal in the 10th China University Student Medical Technology Skills Competition and 14 gold medals in the Internet + Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

Since 2000, the WCH/WCSM has been the first organization in China to conduct and promote residency training. The institution has trained over 4, 700 people for 592 hospitals and over 600 resident doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and pharmacists for Tibet free of charge. We welcome more than 4,000 advanced trainees to study here every year, and WCH’s distance education courses are studied about 2 million times annually.

Research and Innovation

WCH has established research campuses covering over 230,000 ㎡, including 12 national-level and 45 provincial/ministerial-level platforms such as the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, the 2011 Collaborative Innovation Plan, the National Facility for Bio-therapeutic Translational Medicine (Sichuan), the National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases and advanced shared platforms for animal imaging, chromatography/mass spectrometry, microscopic imaging, gene sequencing, flow cytometry, and electron microscopy. It is the only institution in China with a complete innovation and service chain, from target discovery to new drug screening, preclinical trials, clinical trials, and post-marketing evaluation, integrating basic, translational, and clinical research.

The hospital has been ranked first in the country for 10 consecutive years in the Comprehensive Ranking of Science and Technology Evaluation Metrics (STEM) for Chinese Hospitals published by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Additionally, the hospital’s research score has been ranked first for 14 consecutive years in China’s Hospital Rankings published by Fudan University. WCH is ranked No. 1 among healthcare institutions in China and No. 12 in the world in the Nature Index regarding institutional output.

WCH has made a significant impact in the healthcare industry with its numerous breakthroughs and innovations in medical technology. Over the past five years, the hospital has secured nearly 1,300 national projects with an average yearly funding of over 1 billion yuan for research. It has also been a front-runner in receiving more than 240 government science and technology awards at all levels. Our experts have published groundbreaking research in esteemed international journals like Cell, Nature, and Science.  

Medical Rescue

As a national team, WCH has been actively providing medical relief during major public health events, including the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the 2010 Yushu earthquake, the 2013 Lushan earthquake, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake, the 2019 Yibin earthquake, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and so on. In 2018, WCH established the world’s only WHO-certified non-military top-level Emergency Medical Team (EMT), which enables it to participate more effectively in global emergency medical cooperation.

In conclusion, WCH is a leading healthcare institution that excels in providing top-notch medical services to its patients, with a vast number of outpatient and emergency visits each year. The hospital has also established a competency-based education system for medical students, offering various undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Furthermore, WCH has remarkable scientific research capabilities, having won numerous national projects and awards and obtaining many patent approvals. These qualities showcase the hospital’s commitment to providing innovative and cutting-edge medical solutions to the global community.