Profile of The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University

Rooted in the elegance of Yuelu Mountain and endowed with the vitality of Xiangjiang River, the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, formerly named the Third Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Medical University, was founded in 1989. Known as the “New Xiangya”, it is situated in the Xiangjiang New Area of Changsha, a nationally renowned historical and cultural city in Hunan Province. As a large comprehensive Class A tertiary hospital under direct supervision of the National Health Commission, it is an affiliated hospital of Central South University, an institution included in the “Double World-Class Initiative” under the Ministry of Education.

Inheriting the century-old Xiangya medical legacy, the hospital embraces a people-centered approach to healthcare. It has pioneered a distinctive “One Body, Three Wings” development model, with medical services as the core, talent cultivation, scientific research, and scientific management of modern hospitals as the three wings. Today, it stands as a national Grade A tertiary general hospital that integrates clinical care, teaching, research, prevention, health management, and rehabilitation.

Guided by its motto “Cultivate Virtue, Proficient in Medicine, Strive for the Ultimate Good” and the spirit of “Arduous Endeavor and Selfless Dedication,” the hospital has achieved remarkable progress over more than three decades of rapid development. It has earned an A+ rating in the national performance appraisal of tertiary public hospitals for seven consecutive years, achieving a best-ever national rank of 38th. The hospital boasts 17 national key clinical specialties and construction projects, along with 7 cultivation projects. It serves as a designated national institution for menopause healthcare specialty development, the lead institution for establishing the National Regional Medical Center for Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a co-construction unit of the National Comprehensive Regional Medical Center. It is also the only hospital in Hunan Province to attain Level 6 in the Electronic Medical Record System Application Level Grading Evaluation.

Covering a floor area of 203,600 square meters, the hospital is equipped with 2,200 designated beds and has a workforce of 3,480 faculty and staff members, including 3,012 professional technicians. It comprises 34 functional departments, 12 general CPC Party branches, 74 CPC Party branches, 22 teaching and research sections, 45 clinical and medical technology departments, and 63 nursing units. Its distinguished talent pool includes 15 recipients of National Major Talent Programs, 16 experts with the State Council Special Allowance, 2 Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions from the National Health Commission, 4 New Century Excellent Talents from the Ministry of Education, 1 Hunan “Hundred Talents Program” expert, 8 Hunan “Furong Scholars,” 18 Hunan Scientific and Technological Innovation Talents, 2 experts with the Hunan Provincial Government Special Allowance, 1 Hunan Provincial Government Counselor, 12 recipients of Hunan Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 13 recipients of Hunan Provincial Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, and over 150 provincial-level talents, including “Huxiang Young Talents.”

Committed to the strategies of “Talent-First, Scientific Technology-and-Education-Driven, and Specialty-Strengthened,” the hospital has earned global recognition in three core fields: transplantation medicine, minimally invasive medicine, and health management. In transplantation medicine, it excels in liver and kidney solid organ transplants, CAR-T cell therapy for refractory hematologic malignancies in adults and children, and islet cell transplantation for diabetes. In 2008, the world’s first clinical research protocol for xenotransplantation, known as The Changsha Communiqué was formulated in the hospital. In 2018, international transplantation experts gathered again at the hospital to collaboratively develop The Changsha Communiqué (2018). The hospital secured the world’s first clinical application license for living porcine cell xenotransplantation and performed the world’s first xenogeneic porcine islet transplantation following kidney transplantation in patients with diabetic nephropathy. Its comprehensive efficacy index for clinical research on porcine islet transplantation in diabetes now ranks among the world’s best.

The hospital is equipped with cutting-edge medical technology, including the internationally advanced Siemens Biograph Vision PET-CT and Elekta Infinity linear accelerator. It has also introduced a suite of domestically produced high-end devices with full independent intellectual property rights, such as the United Imaging uCT 968 640-slice CT, uMR NX 3.0T MRI, and the “national key scientific instrument” Sichuan Jiuyiyuan cyclotron.

Upholding the fundamental task of fostering virtue and cultivating people, the hospital has built a comprehensive medical talent training system spanning undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoctoral, and international students. It has contributed to one National Teaching Achievement Award (First Prize), offers four national top-quality courses (including Internal Medicine, Clinical Skills Experimentation, and Literature and Information Retrieval), and three national first-class undergraduate courses. The hospital has served as chief editor for 7 national undergraduate planning textbooks and undertaken one international cooperation training program for precision medicine innovative talents funded by the China Scholarship Council. It has also received two Special Prizes of the Hunan Higher Education (Undergraduate) Teaching Achievement Award, one First Prize in the Hunan Young Teachers’ Teaching Competition, and three First Prizes of the Central South University Undergraduate Teaching Achievement Award. Its undergraduate students have won national gold medals in basic medical innovation competitions. Representing Central South University, the hospital has twice claimed the Special Prize in the National Clinical Skills Competition for Medical College Students and secured the highest award in China’s First International Student Clinical Thinking and Skills Competition.

The hospital hosts 36 provincial and ministerial research platforms and 15 Hunan Clinical Medical Research Centers. Its clinical research system has successfully passed re-accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), making it the only medical institution in Hunan with this certification. The annual research funding has exceeded 100 million RMB for seven consecutive years. As the first or corresponding author institution, it published a groundbreaking original article in Science, marking a historic breakthrough in high-impact CNS publications. The hospital has led 13 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, including one First Prize of the Hunan Natural Science Award, two Chinese Medical Science and Technology Awards, five Huayi Medical Science and Technology Awards, one Science Exploration Award, one Zhong Nanshan Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award, and one Shulan Medical Award (Young Scholar). It has undertaken more than 520 national research projects (including major key programs, NSFC, and NSSFC projects), won 68 provincial and ministerial research awards, and secured over 1,075 patents.

As a public hospital, it fulfills its public welfare mission with distinction. It has completed government-assigned tasks such as combating SARS, flood relief, ice disaster rescue, earthquake relief, and medical aid to Africa, Xinjiang, and Xizang. The hospital made outstanding contributions to COVID-19 prevention and control and was honored as a National Outstanding Collective in Foreign Medical Aid, an Advanced Collective in Hunan Foreign Medical Aid, and an Advanced Unit in Hunan COVID-19 Prevention and Control. It provided critical medical rescue during major emergencies, including the “April 29” 2022 Changsha residential building collapse and the “October 21” Xintian wildfire, earning high praise from higher authorities. It has repeatedly been named a Hunan Outstanding Unit in Health Emergency Response.

The hospital delivers itinerant medical services and targeted health assistance to the People’s Hospital of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture and eight municipal and county hospitals. Its support for the First People’s Hospital of Jianghua Yao Autonomous County was selected as a model precision assistance project of the Ministry of Education. It has established a “Trinity, Vertical-Linkage” regional collaborative medical network, forging alliances with primary-level hospitals to expand access to high-quality medical resources and promote balanced regional healthcare development.

In recent years, the hospital has been conferred numerous prestigious titles, including the National May 1 Labor Certificate, National Model Workers’ Home, National Advanced Collective in the Health and Medical Care System, National Reform and Innovation Award in the Health System, National Patient Trust Demonstration Hospital, National Advanced Unit in Ideological and Political Work in the Health System, National Advanced Collective in Medical Ethics Construction, National May 4th Red Flag Youth League Committee, National Youth Model Unit Award, National Advanced Unit in Hospital Culture Construction, Model Unit of Resource-Conserving Public Institutions among Central Government Organs, National Demonstration Hospital for Improving Medical Services and Optimizing Quality Nursing Care, Provincial Exemplary Hospital for High-Quality Development of Public Hospitals, Top 10 Model Units in Building Safe Hospitals in Hunan Province, Advanced Primary Party Organization of Hunan Province, and Advanced Collective in Legal Construction of Medical Institutions in Hunan Province.