Established in 1916,Department ofPathologyinXiangyaMedical College(DPXMC)is one of the earliest established pathology disciplines in China. It undertakes the three major tasks of medical care, teaching and scientific research of Xiangya Medical College.DPXMCsuccessively changed its name to "Department of Pathological Anatomy", "Department of Pathology", and "Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University/Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Sciences". In 2013, Central South University adjusted the management model of the pathology discipline: the teaching work (the Department of Pathology) was managed by the School of Basic Medicine, and the pathology department was incorporated into the clinical discipline system of Xiangya Hospital.

There are 78 employees in the pathology department, including 1 national level renowned teacher, 1 Thousand-Young-Talents teacher, 8 chief physicians/professors, 9 associate chief physicians/associate professors, and 23 attending physicians/lecturers. It is a national key discipline and a clinical key specialty of the Ministry of Health with a national teaching team of medical morphology. It is also the affiliated unit of the Vice President of the National Association of Pathologists, a standing committee member of the Chinese Society of Pathology, the Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Society of Pathology, the Chairman of the Hunan Provincial Quality Control Center for Clinical Pathology, and the Chairman of the Hunan Pathological Diagnosis Alliance.

DPXMChas made outstanding achievements in recent years. In 2001, it was rated as a national key discipline. In 2003, it was awarded the first national excellent course with a national level renowned teacher. Thereafter, it was rated as a national teaching team for medical morphology in 2006, as the Hunan Provincial Excellent Teaching and Research Office in 2009, as the first batch of national key clinical specialties by the Ministry of Health in 2010, and as the national excellent resource sharing course in 2016. It has received numerous other national, provincial, and school-level teaching achievement awards. In 2018, it was ranked the 11^thin Specialty Reputation Ranking of Chinese Hospital, and the 9th in the hospital's discipline-level construction evaluation of Xiangya Hospital from 2019 to 2020 (a total of 46 disciplines participated in the evaluation).

Clinical pathological diagnosis has a history of more than 100 years. It has established a domestic first-class diagnosis, scientific research and teaching platform, and formed more than ten subspecialties featuring lymphoid hematopoietic, respiratory, bone and soft tissue, nerve, nephropathy and ultramicropathology. More than 20 multidisciplinary MDT and difficult case discussions have been conducted every week, and more than 100,000 cases with pathological diagnosis, more than 2,000 cases with ultrastructural pathological diagnosis and more than 6,000 cases with difficult pathological consultation have been undertaken annually.The Center for Molecular Pathology has carried out more than 80 test items, and detected more than 9,000 cases per year (including more than 1,000 cases of high-throughput sequencing). The remote consultation and specialist alliance and the medical consortium have covered more than 80 hospitals in 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, with more than 15,000 cases of remote difficult pathological consultations and nearly 4,000 cases of remote intraoperative rapid pathological diagnosis.

DPXMClays emphasis on teaching reform and innovation and diversified teaching methods and means. It aims at improving students' practical skills and stimulating innovation among students. It has formed teaching features with students visiting pathology, visiting anatomy teaching and CPC, and participating in online teaching and scientific research training for college students. The courses and training project have been awarded on a national level, in addition to the top-ranking undergraduate courses in Hunan Province. We have undertaken more than 20 national, provincial, and school-level education reform projects, won more than 10 national, ministerial, provincial, school, and college-level teaching achievement awards, and guided more than 20 national, provincial, and school-level college students' innovation and entrepreneurship projects. We have also participated in the editing of more than 80 textbooks, teaching reference books and monographs, and published more than 100 teaching papers. Meanwhile, we have trained annually 10-12 resident doctors and 15-20 advanced doctors. The passing rate of the national resident exams is 100% every year.

DPXMCcurrently has 6 doctoral supervisors and 15 master supervisors. It has formed four stable and distinctive research directions of respiratory system pathology, digestive system pathology, mammary gland female reproductive pathology and ultramicropathology. With advanced equipment such as laser confocal microscope, live animal imaging system, flow cytometer, first- and second-generation high-throughput sequencing, and ultra-microelectron microscope, it has established a first-class scientific research platform and clinical pathology sample library. In the past five years, it has successively obtained 1 key project funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, 1 sub-project, 21 national Natural Science Foundation of China projects, 2 key RESEARCH and development projects of Hunan Province, and 8 provincial Natural Science Foundation projects. It has obtained 5 National invention patents and 28 utility model patents. Besides this, it has published more than 150 SCI papers as the first author or corresponding author, and 14papers with an IF score greater than 10. In 2020, it won 4 National Natural Science Foundation projects. In addition, it has published 60 SCI papers, 5 papers of which have an IF greater than 10 points. So far 45 graduate students and 11 doctoral students have graduated from the Department, and they have become the academic leaders and backbones in various fields and units.