The Obstetrics & Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University grew out of the Margaret Williamson Hospital, China’s first specialized obstetrics and gynecology hospital, founded in 1884 with a donation from the American Margaret Williamson. Because of its English name, Margaret Williamson Red House Hospital, it is affectionately known to Shanghai residents and patients as the “Red House Hospital”, and it has been named a Shanghai Civilized Unit many times.

Over more than a century, through the efforts of Professor Wang Shuzhen, one of the founders of obstetrics and gynecology in China, and of several generations of doctors, the hospital has grown steadily and its disciplines have developed rapidly, producing a large group of well-known experts and professors. Today it has a full range of subspecialties, balanced disciplines and a complete talent team, and is a nationally renowned Grade 3, Class A specialized hospital integrating medical care, teaching and research. In the Fudan ranking for 2023 it is placed in the A tier.

With the support of the government, the Yangpu campus opened in 2009 alongside the historic Huangpu campus. The two campuses cover a total of 65 mu, with a floor area of more than 84,600 square meters and 820 approved beds. The hospital has 82 senior and 144 associate senior specialists, 31 doctoral supervisors and 44 master’s supervisors. It receives up to 1.7 million outpatient visits and admits 74,000 inpatients a year.

The hospital has departments of general gynecology, gynecologic oncology, integrated Chinese and Western medicine gynecology, gynecologic endocrinology and reproductive medicine, prenatal diagnosis and fetal medicine, family planning, maternal medicine, neonatology and breast diseases, among others. It is also home to the Fudan University Human Sperm Bank, the Shanghai Fertility Preservation Center, the Shanghai Center for Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Treatment of Menstrual Disorders, the Shanghai Center for Female Reproductive Endocrine Diseases and the Shanghai Ji Ai Genetics and IVF Center.

Obstetrics and gynecology is a key discipline of the Ministry of Education and of Shanghai, and both gynecology and obstetrics are national key clinical specialties. In 2013 the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology was selected as a Shanghai “top priority” key clinical discipline, and in 2017 the hospital was approved to set up the Shanghai Clinical Medical Center for Female Reproductive Diseases. It has the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Female Reproductive Endocrine Related Diseases and an institute of obstetrics and gynecology. It has helped the Ministry of Health draw up standards for obstetrics and gynecology hospitals and clinical pathways for gynecology, and it is a national training base for endoscopic surgery, a training center for gynecologic oncology in East China, a national training base for obstetric anesthesia, and the Shanghai quality control center for gynecology and Shanghai prenatal diagnosis center.

The hospital’s experts include a chief scientist of the national 973 Program, 3 Changjiang Scholars and 2 winners of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. In recent years it has undertaken major national research projects and won the first prize for outstanding research of the Ministry of Education, among other awards. It has academic exchange and cooperation with medical schools in many countries and receives nearly two hundred foreign visitors and lecturers each year.

With more than a century of history, the Red House Hospital continues to serve Shanghai and the whole country and to look out to the world, working toward its vision of “three centers and one platform”.

Cover photo by Fayhoo, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.