Today, Shanghai’s first university-affiliated rehabilitation hospital—Yangzhi Affiliated Rehabilitation Hospital of Tongji University (Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center, SSRC) officially opened in Songjiang District, marking another major step in the cultivation of high-end rehabilitation medical talents in Shanghai.

In the subsequent Excellent Rehabilitation Talents Cultivation Forum, Professor Li Jian'an, former president of ISPRM (International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine), international member of the National Academy of Medicine (America) and honorary president of SSRC, and a number of experts in the rehabilitation field gave keynote speeches. Guests at the meeting conducted in-depth discussions on how to improve the development of high-end rehabilitation medical talents in China.

SSRC was established in 2007. It is affiliated to Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation. It is a provincial Grade three rehabilitation center for the disabled in China, one of the first batch of regional work-related injury rehabilitation demonstration institutions, and the national spinal cord injury resource center. In 2013, the hospital cooperated with Tongji University, jointly building the Rehabilitation Medicine Department of Tongji University School of Medicine and establishing an undergraduate major in rehabilitation therapy. It set a precedent for cooperation between domestic rehabilitation hospitals and member universities of Project 985.

Rehabilitation is one of the basic livelihood issues and an important part of the country's basic public services. In China, the elderly, the disabled, patients suffering from chronic diseases, and sub-healthy people have a huge demand for rehabilitation. The incidence of chronic diseases increases with age and the disease spectrum changes because of aging. Diseases of the elderly with high incidence and disability brought by chronic diseases all need rehabilitation, which continue to expand the demand for the rehabilitation medical industry. At the same time, China's rehabilitation professionals are seriously inadequate. According to the international rehabilitation therapist's standard of 30 therapists/100,000 people, our country needs about 400,000 rehabilitation therapists. But at present, there are fewer than 20,000 rehabilitation therapists in China. According to statistics, only 75 universities and 158 colleges in China have the rehabilitation major. The total number of annual graduates is only about 8,000, among which more than 70% are college graduates.

In the context of Healthy China Initiative, rehabilitation medicine plays an important role in realizing Healthy Shanghai Initiative and people's pursuit of a better life. To a large extent, rehabilitation medicine represents the height of national civilization and the temperature of a city's development. Establishing university-affiliated rehabilitation hospitals and accelerating the cultivation of outstanding rehabilitation talents have become an inevitable trend in the development of rehabilitation medicine.

In this context, SSRC becomes an affiliated hospital of Tongji University, which not only conforms to the requirements of the time, but also is a great exploration of rehabilitation medicine education mode. SSRC is the first municipal rehabilitation hospital and the first “double first class” university affiliated rehabilitation hospital in Shanghai. TUSM and SSRC created a new mode to train rehabilitation medicine talents—through cooperating and exploring with universities. This mode is in line with China’s major development strategies concerning developing rehabilitation, elderly care and sport industries, and the new needs of major concerns of people’s livelihood. It is a major initiative for TJU and Shanghai Disabled Persons' Federation to actively serve the society, national strategies and discipline development strategies. Meanwhile, it has profound implications on building a domestically leading rehabilitation therapy major, improving the overall level of rehabilitation services in Shanghai, and cultivating outstanding rehabilitation professionals.