The Department of Transfusion Medicine at First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University was established in 1982. As an independent department separated from the Laboratory Medicine Department. Initially named the Blood Bank, it was renamed the Department of Transfusion Medicine in 1997. Over the years, it has evolved from a single-function blood bank into a comprehensive department integrating blood storage and supply, transfusion testing, transfusion therapy, clinical services, teaching, and research. The department currently occupies approximately 1,000 square meters.
Departmental Features
Laboratory Testing: The department operates specialized laboratories, including the Transfusion Compatibility Laboratory (for complex blood typing, cross-matching, blood group genotyping, and unexpected antibody detection and identification) and the Infectious Disease Screening Laboratory (for HIV screening and confirmation, as well as pre-transfusion screening for bloodborne diseases). In addition to routine tests, the department offers advanced assays such as platelet antibody detection, platelet cross-matching, Rh antigen typing, and thromboelastography, thus providing comprehensive and reliable laboratory data to support clinical transfusion decisions.
Transfusion Therapy: Operating 24 hours a day, the department provides a range of therapeutic procedures including therapeutic plasma exchange, lymphoplasmapheresis, whole blood/partial blood exchange, red blood cell apheresis, platelet apheresis, autologous transfusion (stored autologous red blood cell apheresis, stored autologous platelet apheresis, and stored autologous whole blood collection), PRP therapy, and clinical consultations. Transfusion outpatient services are available at both the Yuanjiagang and the Jinshan Campus, which ensures that patients have timely access to these treatments.
Clinical Blood Utilization: The department has established a comprehensive clinical blood management system and a sustainable regulatory mechanism for rational blood use in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. Utilizing advanced information technology, the system manages the entire process - from establishing transfusion indications to efficacy evaluation - through intelligent, closed-loop management. This approach ensures that blood is used scientifically, rationally, safely, and effectively. Additionally, the department serves as a designated National Blood Safety Monitoring Regional Center and Sentinel Site.
Teaching and Research
The department is committed to the balanced development of clinical services, teaching, and research. It offers an elective course titled “Clinical Blood Use” to undergraduate students in the five-year clinical medicine program and to clinical research postgraduates. Since 2013, the department has admitted transfusion medicine-directed interns and visiting trainees from the medical laboratory sciences program, thereby training numerous transfusion medicine professionals for blood collection and supply institutions as well as healthcare facilities. This commitment has earned the department recognition as an “Outstanding Internship Base” by Chongqing Medical University. Moreover, it has hosted multiple national and municipal continuing education programs and contributed to authoritative transfusion medicine literature - most notably the second edition of Chinese Transfusion Medicine and several expert consensus documents. In recent years, the department has secured 13 national, provincial, and municipal research projects, including 3 National Natural Science Foundation grants and has published 21 SCI-indexed papers, with a maximum impact factor reaching 12.545.
Talent Development
The department currently employs 31 staff members, including 2 clinical physicians and 1 pathologist. The team includes 4 senior professionals and 12 mid-level professionals. Academically, 8 staff members hold doctoral degrees (including 2 on postdoctoral assignments and 2 who returned from studies at the University of Chicago) and the department has 4 master supervisors. In addition to being located at the Yuanjiagang Campus, 3 permanent staff members are stationed at the Jinshan Campus and 3 at the Jingwei Campus .
Quality Management
The department was among the first in the industry to implement ISO9000-based quality management system. It has developed a comprehensive set of quality management documents, including a Transfusion Management Quality Manual and Standard Operating Procedures for the Transfusion Laboratory. Through rigorous internal quality control measures in the transfusion compatibility testing laboratory and the establishment of a comprehensive quality management system, the department ensures the highest standards of safety in blood transfusion.
Guided by the policy of “Excellence in Technology, Accuracy in Results, and High-Quality Service”, the department is committed to continuous improvement and innovation, striving to become a leading national and international center for transfusion medicine.
Specialist Alliance
In March 2018, the Department of Transfusion Medicine at First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University assumed the role of chair unit in establishing the Chongqing Transfusion Medicine Specialist Alliance. Currently, the alliance comprises 122 member institutions covering Chongqing and neighboring provinces such as Sichuan, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Operating on the principles of resource sharing, complementary strengths, and mutually beneficial cooperation, the alliance is dedicated to accelerating the development of transfusion medicine and the training of transfusion professionals, ultimately improving clinical blood utilization standards. It serves as a platform for learning, exchange, and collaboration in transfusion medicine. With a commitment to nonprofit public service, the alliance promotes shared and optimized use of transfusion medical resources, enhancing the overall level of transfusion medicine services.
The alliance organizes annual academic activities, including multiple sessions of training courses on rational clinical blood use and new transfusion technologies, transfusion physician training and clinical physician training in rational blood use. It also hosts national and municipal continuing education projects on topics such as “Clinical Transfusion Adverse Event Monitoring”, “Standardized Documentation of Clinical Blood Use: Case Analysis”, “Development of Transfusion Medicine”, “Multidisciplinary Clinical Applications in Transfusion Therapy”, and “Research Capacity Building for Transfusion Medicine Personnel in Chongqing”. Through these efforts, the alliance members have engaged in over 40 technical and research collaborations and co-authored 5 research papers. Additionally, the alliance continuously trains transfusion medicine-directed interns and visiting scholars, encouraging member institutions to implement innovative transfusion techniques such as autologous blood transfusion, plasma exchange, PRP therapy, and transfusion outpatient clinics in line with the Chongqing Medical Institution Transfusion Medicine Department Basic Standards (Trial). The alliance has helped solve practical clinical challenges, fostering a spirit of mutual learning, experience-sharing, and resource sharing across member institutions.