Established in 1985, the Ultrasonography Department of the Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children (Women and Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University), or CQHCWC, specializes in integrating medical treatment, scientific research, and teaching. It focuses on prenatal ultrasound screenings and diagnosis, and ultrasound consultations for severe and chronic diseases in the fields of gynecology and obstetrics.

Since the CQHCWC was approved as one of the first batch of prenatal diagnosis centers in Chongqing in 2006, the Ultrasonography Department has carried out various new ultrasound technologies related to obstetrics and held various training courses and conferences.

As a standardized ultrasound training base for resident doctors and the only prenatal ultrasound screening training base in Chongqing, the department trains gynecology and obstetrics ultrasound doctors in hospitals at all levels, and offers technical guidance on ultrasound technology for women and children's hospitals in districts and counties in the city.

It is also responsible for providing training on screenings for the city's so-called "two cancers" (breast and cervical cancers) as well as professional training to help control and prevent birth defects, which was first launched by the National Health Commission.

In addition, it serves as the chair unit of the Prenatal Ultrasound Professional Committee of the Chongqing Engineering Society, and the leading unit of the Chongqing Prenatal Ultrasound Quality Control Team, as well as the leading institution in the Chongqing "Yunyu" Spark Project, which is centered on prenatal ultrasound technology training and quality control.

Meanwhile, the department is a multi-center cooperative unit for many scientific research projects in the country, namely the Beijing Key Laboratory of Maternal-fetal Medical Research on Fetal Heart Disease, the Prenatal Diagnosis Standard Training Multi-center, and the national multi-center of the Pelvic Floor Ultrasound Standardized Examination.

It is also a member of the Pelvic Floor Ultrasound Examination and Diagnosis Quality Control System Project, and the China Uterine Fallopian Tube Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound multi-center.

The department moreover ranks as the automated screening breast ultrasound (ABUS) operation training base for GE Healthcare (China) and its breast cancer ABUS remote screening consultation base.

The department plays an active role in clinical diagnosis and treatment for national obstetrics and gynecology, as well as teaching and scientific research.

Based on the Chongqing Maternal and Child Health Specialty Alliance, it has established the ultrasound remote consultation and ECG network platforms, which have been successfully put into use in 17 hospitals.

The Ultrasonography Department is equipped with nearly 50 high-end color Doppler ultrasound diagnostic instruments such as GE E10, E8, ABUS, PHILIP EPIQ7, EPIQ5 and Samsung WS80A, PACS imaging work platform, as well as the first ultrasound simulator training system in Southwest China.

Among its teaching equipment is a virtual training system for obstetrics-related and gynecology ultrasounds, and ultrasound examination training simulation systems for adult patients focused on the abdomen and heart.

These are specially designed to train personnel at the prenatal ultrasound screening training base, as well as to train birth defect prevention and control personnel to a professional level, while offering standardized training for those operating in the fields of gynecology and obstetrics.

In the past five years, the department has received a green light for seven projects at the provincial-ministerial level and five at the bureau-director level. It has published more than 50 papers in domestic and foreign journals and magazines, nine of which have been collected by the Science Citation Index (SCI) and more than 40 by the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD).

The department has been honored as an advanced department, an advanced collective and an advanced Party branch of the CQHCWC for several years in a row. It has also received multiple honors, such as "Worker Pioneer" by the Chongqing Municipal Federation of Trade Unions in 2011, "Worker Pioneer" by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in 2013, and "National Women's Civilized Post" in 2019.

Technical expertise

In 2022, the Ultrasonography Department completed 750,000 examinations. There are four professional units operating under the auspices of the department, namely obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, and comprehensive units.

Obstetrics unit: In 2008, the department was authorized by the British Fetal Medicine Foundation to use the risk value calculation software to screen for Down syndrome at 11-13+6 weeks in the first trimester, and in 2015, it passed the certification for fetal nasal bone screening in the first trimester.

It routinely offers services including 11-13+6 weeks early pregnancy ultrasounds, systematic ultrasounds (Grade III obstetric ultrasounds), twin fetal ultrasound examinations, fetal ultrasonic cardiograms, grade IV targeted ultrasounds, grade II obstetric ultrasounds, high-risk pregnancy ultrasound monitoring, and ultrasound evaluation before and after intrauterine treatment, among others.

Gynecology unit

This routinely carries out transabdominal, transvaginal, transperineal, transrectal two-dimensional, three-dimensional and four-dimensional (real-time three-dimensional) gynecological ultrasound examinations, one-stop evaluation of infertile patients, four-dimensional pelvic floor ultrasounds and gynecological venous contrast-enhanced ultrasounds. It also offers uterine fallopian tube contrast-enhanced ultrasounds, intrauterine hydrops imaging, and ultrasound-guided interventional therapy for various gynecological diseases, among others.

Pediatrics unit

This routinely carries out ultrasound examinations for common diseases of various systems in newborns, including cerebral hemorrhages, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, hydrocephalus, congenital heart disease, gastrointestinal diseases (pyloric hypertrophic stenosis, intestinal malrotation, etc.), congenital hypothyroidism, torticollis, and more. The unit is especially skilled at performing ultrasound diagnosis for prematurely born infants with a very low birth weight. It has also taken the lead in the city in terms of carrying out ultrasound screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip and the ultrasound diagnosis of neonatal lung diseases.

Comprehensive unit

This routinely carries out ultrasound examinations of the abdomen, cardiovascular system, and small organs, as well as contrast-enhanced ultrasounds of the thyroid gland and breast. It introduced the world's most advanced three-dimensional breast volume (ABUS) ultrasound, which has greatly improved the detection rate of small breast lesions, compared with traditional ultrasounds.

Experts of Ultrasonography Department