SAHZU always focuses on catering to patients’ needs. With an endeavor to “work out solutions to some certain major diseases”, SAHZU now starts to take early actions for health promotion and disease prevention. The Medical Genetics Department is thus founded at SAHZU, with a goal to provide advanced clinical services in early diagnosis, birth defect prevention, and diagnosis and treatment of complicated medical conditions from a molecular medicine approach.

In modern and future medicine, medical genetics is gaining more and more attention. The majority of diseases in human being have been confirmed to be closely related to genetic genes with the widespread application of Next Generation Sequencing in related research. In the context of this, it could be said that the breakthroughs of medical treatment rely on genetic interventions. There is a growing demand of genetic counseling and prenatal intervention in the clinical work.

However, despite its importance, no medical genetics department in Chinese hospitals has ever provided clinical services, while in western countries, it is an indispensable part of healthcare systems, especially in children’s hospitals and women’s hospitals. The establishment of the Department of Medical Genetics at SAHZU fills the gap in China.

“Next step, we will work on building the first standardized residency training base of medical genetics in Zhejiang. By forming an organized management and training system and a complete post-graduation education system, we hope to lead the development of medical genetics science.” Says SAHZU Vice President Prof. WU Zhiying.