In 1999, Professor Hang Yannan, the Director of the Anesthesiology Department of Renji Hospital, set up the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU). After fifteen years of development, this department has made significant progress in medical education, research, and discipline construction. In 2014, the Department of Critical Care Medicine was officially established. Today, the Department of Critical Care Medicine of Renji Hospital has developed into a clinical first-level diagnosis and treatment discipline with distinct characteristics, reasonable talent structure, and comprehensive medical education and research.

 The discipline currently has 39 practicing physicians, including 19 doctors, 11 senior professional titles, 2 doctoral supervisors, and 2 master's supervisors. At present, the discipline has established a multidisciplinary collaborative treatment team, including respiratory therapists and rehabilitation therapists. The scope of work covers the East, West, South, and Hangzhou Bay campus of Renji Hospital. It is also responsible for the standardized training and guidance of other specialized ICUs in the hospital. In February 2024, with the completion of the construction of the East Campus Discipline Building, the Intensive Care Medicine Center with a planned capacity of 102 beds will be officially completed and put into use.

As the core platform for treating critically ill patients at Renji Hospital, this discipline integrates superior resources and carries out the "Critical Care Specialty Group"  construction with the ICU center as the core platform. Within the discipline, it establishes a sub-professional layout with "sepsis diagnosis and treatment and multiple organ function support" as the core, and carries out work in sub-professional fields such as "severe infection", "ARDS and respiratory failure", "organ function protection and support", and "critical care for pregnant women" with positive results. The discipline admits over 4,000 critically ill patients annually. Through standardized bedside ultrasound and transthoracic electrical impedance tomography (EIT) guided mechanical ventilation, prone positioning ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), continuous blood purification (CPB), and other important organ function support techniques, the success rate of sepsis treatment is as high as 85%, reaching the world-class level. As an important platform for perioperative care of critically ill liver disease patients, the discipline carries out comprehensive perioperative treatment strategies based on artificial liver technology. Among them, 70% of patients successfully undergo liver transplantation, and the success rate of liver transplantation in patients with severe liver failure is more than 80%. As one of the Shanghai City Critical Care Obstetric Centers, the discipline admits 40% of critically ill pregnant women in Shanghai each year, with a rescue success rate of 99.5%. It has made outstanding contributions to improving the success rate of critical care for pregnant women and reducing maternal mortality rate, and has been awarded honors such as the Advanced Collective in Shanghai’s Fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Advanced Grassroots Party Organization in Shanghai.

Our department emphasizes the cultivation and construction of talent echelons. Over the years, we have consistently undertaken theoretical teaching and practical training for undergraduate and graduate students of Clinical Medicine at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in courses such as "General Surgery", "Critical Care Medicine",   "Hemodynamic Management and Organ Function Support in Critical Illness" and “Critical Care”. Additionally, we have participated in the compilation of national-level textbooks such as the fourth edition of "Critical Care Medicine" and "Guidance for National Advanced Health Professional Qualification Examination - Critical Care Medicine" for the national higher education specialty of Anesthesiology. Regular national-level continuing education courses have been conducted, and over thirty graduate students have been trained, with some receiving honors such as Outstanding Graduates of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2018, our department was designated as a national-level specialist training base in Critical Care Medicine, and in 2020, it became a national-level standardized training base for resident physicians in Critical Care Medicine, with six specialized training mentors and ten resident training mentors. Several members of our department have received funding from talent programs such as the "Shanghai Outstanding Young Medical Talent Training Support Program," "Pujiang Program," and "Shanghai Science and Technology Rising Star (Sailing Special)."

In terms of research, our department has long been dedicated to studying areas such as sepsis and ARDS, pulmonary fibrosis, organ function protection and support, and severe infections. In recent years, it has led 12 National Natural Science Foundation projects and 18 provincial and municipal key research projects, establishing a systematic and mature research system that has yielded positive results. In recent years, members of our department have published over 60 SCI papers as first/corresponding authors, obtained more than ten authorized national invention or utility model patents, participated in the compilation of nearly 10 clinical expert consensuses. Some research results have been published in top international journals such as N Engl J Med, Lancet Infect Dis, Intensive Care Med, and Am J Respir Crit Care Med, and have been highly recommended by journals like Lab Invest, including as cover articles and editorial comments, reflecting significant academic influence in the field of critical care.

Our department has established strategic cooperation with top academic institutions both domestically and internationally to create a regional cooperation and exchange platform. Over ten outstanding young and middle-aged talents have been sent to Europe, the United States, Hong Kong, and other international top medical institutions and laboratories for academic visits, and more than 40 individuals have been invited to participate in academic exchanges at top domestic and international conferences through keynote speeches and other forms, thereby expanding the international and regional professional academic influence of our department and effectively promoting the internationalization of our department. Meanwhile, the open and sharing learning concept of our department has attracted a large number of physicians from grassroots hospitals in the city and the Yangtze River Delta region for further education, thereby promoting exchanges and progress among critical care medicine peers nationwide.