At noon on July 24, in the consultation center for complex and rare diseases on the fourth floor of the outpatient building of PUMCH, gathered more than 20 physicians in the MDT for Complex Renal Diseases from various departments including Nephrology, Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases, Hematology, Gastroenterology, Urology, Radiology, and Nuclear Medicine. They joined hands for a consultation for a patient who had been experiencing fever and fatigue for 3 years and bilateral hydronephrosis and elevated blood creatinine levels for 1 year, with the cause of the conditions still unclear. After one hour of analysis and discussion, the specialists finally arrived at a solution for diagnosing and treating this patient with multisystem involvement and complex conditions. Established this June, this specialized MDT opened a “fast and efficient” green passage for providing comprehensive medical care to patients with intractable renal diseases.

▲Consultation by the MDT for Complex Renal Diseases

Kidney diseases can lead to multi-system damage, and diseases of multiple systems often cause renal involvement. That is why patients with difficult and critical illnesses related to the kidneys often have complex conditions. They need to seek care from multiple departments and often run into difficulties, partially magnified by the lack of direct and effective communication between the doctors that they visit successively. To spare patients from unnecessary trips to hospitals and improve the efficiency of medical care for both doctors and patients, 50-odd specialists from 17 departments, led by the Department of Nephrology, have formed the MDT dedicated to complex renal diseases. The MDT will tap into the multi-disciplinary strengths of PUMCH in providing comprehensive care to provide one-stop and personalized care to patients.

Dr. Qin Yan, the Deputy Director of the Department of Nephrology, explained that currently, the MDT consultation would be organized upon the request put in by specialists that see the need for it based on their assessment of patients’ conditions. Undaunted by the challenge, the specialized team will then capitalize on the strengths of different PUMCH specialties to provide higher-quality and more efficient diagnosis and treatment plans for complex diseases, including autoimmune kidney diseases, metabolic diseases causing kidney damage, antitumor drug-induced kidney injury, rare inherited kidney diseases, chronic kidney disease, and comprehensive management of renal replacement therapy.

As a national guiding center for the diagnosis and treatment of complex and rare diseases, PUMCH has always focused on the needs of patients. To that end, it established in 2010 the outpatient consultation center for complex and rare  diseases, extending the collaborative MDT model from wards to the outpatient setting. So far, 40 specialized teams have been assembled, building a stronger force to safeguard people’s health.

Written by Yan Xiaobo and Liu Yan

Photographed by Sun Liang

Translated by Liu Haiyan

Reviewed by Chen Gang and Wang Yao