KingMed Diagnostics Becomes First Third-Party Medical Testing Firm to Join China's National Clinical Research 'Elite Team'

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a major public health issue in China, affecting more than 120 million adults. To advance clinical research and diagnostic capabilities in nephrology, the “2018 Summit on Clinical Nephrology, Pathology, and Laboratory Medicine” was held in Guangzhou on April 21, 2018, jointly organized by the National Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease at Nanfang Hospital, the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology, and KingMed Diagnostics.

At the conference, the KingMed Diagnostics Renal Pathology Sub-center of the National Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease was officially unveiled. Meanwhile, the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology–KingMed Academician Workstation was formally established. As the only third-party medical laboratory currently selected into the “national team” for clinical disease research in China, KingMed Diagnostics will leverage this national-level platform for clinical and translational medicine research to collaborate with the team led by Hou Fanfan, a renowned nephrologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This partnership aims to further enhance the technical standards of diagnosis and treatment for kidney diseases in China and support the advancement of chronic kidney disease prevention and control efforts nationwide.

Academician Hou Fanfan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Liu Guanxian, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, Liang Yaoming, Chairman and CEO of Guangzhou KingMed Diagnostics Group, and nearly 300 nephrology experts from across China attended the high-level forum.

Currently, the situation regarding chronic kidney disease (CKD) is severe in China and globally, making it a significant public health issue. According to the results of China’s first epidemiological survey on kidney disease conducted in 2012, the prevalence of CKD among the adult population in China was 10.8%. Based on this figure, it is estimated that there are currently 120 million adult CKD patients in China, meaning that one in every ten adults suffers from CKD. However, the awareness rate of CKD remains only 12.5%.

To strengthen the construction of an innovative system for medical sciences and enhance clinical research capabilities, China has established 32 National Clinical Medical Research Centers across 11 disease areas, including chronic kidney disease (CKD). As national highlands for clinical medicine and translational medical research, these centers are regarded as the “national team” of clinical medical research. Among them, the National Clinical Medical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease at Nanfang Hospital is one of the first batches of such centers established and one of the two National Clinical Medical Research Centers in Guangdong Province. By undertaking major national clinical research tasks, developing and evaluating new technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of CKD, promoting industry-academia-research integrated translational medical research, and training teams for clinical research and primary prevention and control, the center leads the development of CKD prevention and treatment in Guangdong Province and throughout China.

Advancing the prevention and control of kidney disease in China hinges on the enhancement of diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities. It is well established that the diagnosis of kidney diseases relies primarily on renal pathological diagnosis, complemented by auxiliary methods such as clinical assessment, genetic testing, and serological analysis. This integrated approach is of significant importance for clinical diagnosis, treatment guidance, and prognosis evaluation in kidney diseases. To further promote new technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and improve the standard of CKD diagnostic and therapeutic services in China, the National Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease at Nanfang Hospital has decided to establish a Renal Pathology Sub-center at KingMed Diagnostics.

According to reports, KingMed Diagnostics is currently the largest third-party medical testing institution in China, with its annual volume of kidney disease specimens ranking first globally. As early as 2008, KingMed Diagnostics established a Kidney Disease Diagnostic Center, which has successively obtained accreditation under the ISO 15189 quality management system and from the College of American Pathologists (CAP). Centered on renal biopsy pathology, the KingMed Kidney Disease Diagnostic Center has established a renal pathological diagnosis platform, a genetic testing platform for kidney diseases, a serological testing platform for kidney diseases, and a dialysis water quality testing platform, providing renal pathological diagnostic services to more than 1,000 medical institutions across 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China.Over the past decade, KingMed Diagnostics’ Nephrology Diagnostic Center has processed more than 970,000 tests, including nearly 40,000 renal biopsy specimens annually, making it the clinical service provider with the largest volume of renal pathology diagnoses in China and even globally.

Following the establishment of a renal pathology sub-center by the National Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease at Nanfang Hospital within KingMed Diagnostics, both parties will engage in close collaboration. By strengthening resource allocation and leveraging complementary advantages, they aim to gather and cultivate more professional talent while enhancing collaborative innovative research. The National Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease will integrate with KingMed’s strengths in renal pathology and utilize its nationwide pathological diagnosis service network to further amplify the center’s radiating influence in the prevention and treatment of kidney diseases. This partnership will facilitate the rapid promotion and widespread adoption of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic technologies in primary healthcare institutions, thereby elevating the standards of chronic kidney disease prevention and control in Guangdong Province and across China.

At the conference, the Guangdong Provincial Institute of Nephrology–KingMed Academician Workstation, jointly established by Academician Hou Fanfan and her team together with KingMed Diagnostics, was also announced. KingMed Diagnostics will collaborate with Academician Hou Fanfan to build a biobank and database platform related to kidney diseases, and conduct research on nephrology epidemiology, rare kidney diseases, and other related areas.

As early as 2016, under the leadership of Academician Hou Fanfan’s team, a nationwide epidemiological study was conducted in collaboration with five other nephrology centers to investigate the correlation between shifts in renal pathological types and air pollution. This study was based on a large sample of over 60,000 renal pathology cases from KingMed Diagnostics. The primary manuscript, co-authored by the corresponding authors, has been published in the American Journal of Nephrology, which ranks first globally in the field of nephrology.

To further advance research, the Yuyitong Clinical Diagnostic Service System for Kidney Disease was also launched at the conference. This system enables mobile, information-based management of case data, facilitates two-way communication between clinicians and pathologists, promotes standardized examinations and precise diagnosis of kidney diseases, and provides physicians with convenient renal pathological diagnostic services.

“Establishing the Academician Workstation together with Academician Hou Fanfan marks KingMed Diagnostics’ latest collaboration with a top-tier team of Chinese academicians, following previous partnerships with Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert in respiratory diseases, and Zeng Yitao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and medical geneticist,” stated Liang Yaoming, Chairman and CEO of KingMed Diagnostics. As China’s largest third-party medical laboratory service provider, KingMed Diagnostics is transitioning into a leading domestic and world-class integrated provider of medical diagnostic information, guided by clinical needs and disease management. Talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force. Moving forward, KingMed Diagnostics will continue to collaborate with more top experts both domestically and internationally to build a biobank and database for the Chinese population. Leveraging these data resources, the company aims to design testing panels better suited to the Chinese population, thereby supporting the supply-side reform of the nation’s healthcare services.