In early winter in Jinling, the layered forests are all ablaze with color;

At year’s end, by the riverbank, wisdom surges forth.

From December 12 to 14, the annual academic highlight of the East China rehabilitation medicine community—the 2025 East China Rehabilitation Academic Conference and the Second High-Quality Development Summit for Privately Operated Healthcare—was grandly held in Nanjing.

What industry transformations are being triggered by healthcare insurance reform? Against the backdrop of an aging population, how can we deepen and solidify the integration of health and elderly care? In critical areas such as neurological rehabilitation, critical-care rehabilitation, oncology rehabilitation, and sports‑injury rehabilitation, what common challenges and unique bottlenecks do we face? And how can we pool our collective wisdom to break through these impasses and move forward?

This conference is themed around “Pooling Strength for Innovation, Standardizing and Upgrading, Empowering Development” As a spark, it ignites the flames of fifteen parallel forums, where cutting-edge ideas collide and practical wisdom converges, gradually unveiling a vivid vision of the future of rehabilitation.

Key Takeaways from the Main Forum: Broad Vision and Dynamic Intellectual Exchange

On December 13, the keynote session brought the conference to a thrilling climax. Renowned domestic experts in the rehabilitation field gathered to engage in in-depth, wide-ranging discussions and explorations centered on the industry’s core issues. From… The Path of Innovation in the Rehabilitation Medical Insurance Model , to The Logic of High-Quality Investment in the Rehabilitation Sector from a Social Capital Perspective , and then to Philosophical Reflections on the Construction of a Therapeutic Environment — The report addresses both the macro-level design of institutional mechanisms and the nuanced details of clinical practice. Experts delved further into the synergistic paradigm of technology and the humanities in the rehabilitation process, as well as the ecological environment conducive to the development of private healthcare institutions. The entire presentation was broad in scope and profound in insight, with sparks of wisdom igniting through the exchange of ideas, thereby injecting rich intellectual nourishment and solid practical guidance into the future development of the rehabilitation sector.

Among them, Gao Zhiqiang, Executive Vice President of Nanjing Zijin Hospital, adopted a neurophysiological perspective and delivered a presentation titled “The Neurological Foundations of Rehabilitation in Disorders of Consciousness (Overlooked Factors).” He guided the audience beyond surface-level observations to illuminate the often-neglected neural mechanisms and critical factors in clinical practice, systematically revealing the underlying physiological principles and opportunities for intervention in the process of consciousness recovery. Grounded in empirical research and structured around clinical reasoning, his talk offered a clear yet compassionate approach to addressing the complex and challenging issue of disorders of consciousness.

Rehabilitation Sub-Forum on Severe Disorders of Consciousness: Multidimensional Exploration, In-Depth Challenges

During this conference, Nanjing Zijin Hospital successfully hosted Rehabilitation Sub-Forum on Severe Disorders of Consciousness , bringing together numerous renowned experts in the field. The forum was chaired by Wang Yifang, Vice President of Nanjing Zijin, and Xiao Feng, Assistant to the President.

Ge Jiangping, President of Nanjing Zijin Hospital, attended the forum and delivered a speech, noting that critical care rehabilitation is a “hard-fought battle” to safeguard the dignity of life. Its ultimate goal is not merely to sustain life, but to help patients regain a high‑quality life to the greatest extent possible. She emphasized that critical care rehabilitation is not the responsibility of any single discipline; rather, it is a systemic undertaking that requires close multidisciplinary collaboration. The forum was convened not only to review past achievements but also to chart a course for the future, jointly exploring new pathways, standards, and paradigms in critical care rehabilitation. As the only non‑public tertiary rehabilitation hospital currently serving the Nanjing region, Nanjing Zijin Hospital has, for decades, centered its services on consciousness‑recovery assessment, serving patients across eastern China. The hospital continues to build a high‑level platform for rehabilitation medicine exchange, striving to establish refined, standardized practices among non‑public rehabilitation hospitals nationwide, so that more patients can benefit from professional, precise, and comprehensive rehabilitation care. At this forum, the hospital invited numerous leading experts and distinguished scholars from across the country to share their insights and engage in lively discussions. This event was not only an academic gathering but also a vital opportunity to stimulate thought, foster consensus, and advance collaboration. President Ge Jiangping once again expressed her gratitude to all participants for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend, as well as to the keynote speakers for their generous support and to fellow colleagues for their enthusiastic engagement.

In the subsequent panel presentations, six speakers delved deeper and deeper, each approaching the topic from a distinct perspective.

Zhou Suming, deputy director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine and director of the Geriatric ICU at Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital, delivered the opening presentation titled “Timing and Strategies for Intervention in Critical Care Rehabilitation.” Starting with ICU‑acquired weakness, he examined the topic from multiple perspectives—pathophysiology, incidence, diagnostic criteria, prognosis, and barriers to implementing early rehabilitation—and drew on extensive clinical data and case comparisons to demonstrate the positive impact of early, timely intervention on patient outcomes. His work challenged the conventional view that rehabilitation should begin only after vital signs have stabilized, offering clear time‑window guidance for clinical practice.

Ye Xiangming, Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Rehabilitation Center, shared insights that highlight the cutting edge of integrative rehabilitation medicine. Focusing on the development and implementation of a multidisciplinary, neuro‑regulatory clinical research ward for disorders of consciousness, he systematically outlined how this innovative model transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and, through a closed-loop “clinical–research” mechanism, continuously drives innovation in treatment strategies. This approach provides a systematic framework for interdisciplinary collaboration in the rehabilitation of disorders of consciousness, broadening both the clinical horizons and the research pathways in critical care neurorehabilitation.
 

At 10:00 a.m., air-raid sirens sounded over Nanjing. On the twelfth National Memorial Day, all participants observed a minute of silence. The nation’s sorrow will never be forgotten! (Following the moment of silence, the forum resumed.)

In her presentation, “Prevention and Rehabilitation of ICU-Acquired Weakness,” Dr. Li Qing, associate chief physician in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at The First Affiliated Hospital of Southeast University, highlighted that ICU-acquired weakness has a high incidence and adversely affects clinical outcomes, leading to multi-system functional decline—including limb muscle atrophy and impaired respiratory function—thus becoming a significant barrier to recovery. Drawing on clinical cases, she emphasized the benefits of combining nutritional support with exercise in mitigating ICU-acquired weakness. From the acute phase through discharge, Dr. Li provided a detailed and highly instructive intervention plan.

The expert team from Nanjing Zijin Hospital also delivered a series of insightful presentations, contributing valuable “Zijin wisdom.”

In her presentation, “Precision Nutritional Management for Patients with Chronic Critical Illness,” Director Ye Xianghong of the Nursing Department clearly outlined the current prevalence of malnutrition among CCI patients, noting that sarcopenia and nutrient deficiencies have emerged as new public health concerns. Drawing on guidelines from ESPEN 2024 and other major conferences, and integrating insights from the clinical experience at Nanjing Zijin Hospital’s intensive care unit, she systematically examined the pivotal role of nutritional support in critical illness recovery and underscored the importance of comprehensive nutritional management and individualized, precision‑based approaches. She further emphasized that, moving forward, hospital nursing teams can employ simple physical‑fitness assessments and muscle‑mass evaluations to promptly address patients’ nutritional status while concurrently advancing relevant academic research.

Director Gao Jirong of the Awakening Center at the Qinhuai Campus delivered a substantive presentation titled “The Value of Multimodal Neuroelectrophysiological Assessment in Critical Care Rehabilitation.” He provided a clear and insightful analysis of the integrated application of techniques such as EEG, ERP, SSEP, and TMS‑EEG, emphasizing their ability to generate an objective, precise “neurofunctional map” for patients with disorders of consciousness and their role in the management of these conditions. Drawing on clinical cases from the hospital, he underscored the critical importance of multimodal neuroelectrophysiological assessment. Looking ahead, he also noted that future advances in quantum tunneling and brain–computer interfaces hold the promise of bringing new hope to patient rehabilitation.

Director Pan Xingming of the Awakening Center at the Jiangning Campus, drawing on his extensive clinical experience, provided an interpretation of the “China Nanjing Consciousness Recovery Scale (CNCRS),” which was spearheaded by Nanjing Zijin Hospital. In his presentation, “The CNCRS from the Perspective of a Critical Care Rehabilitation Physician,” he reviewed the scale’s development and emphasized that it can effectively demonstrate the therapeutic benefits of multisensory stimulation and family‑member calls for patients. He also clarified the specific scoring criteria of the scale and underscored the need to refine its practical application so that it can be systematically documented in patient records. Recently, The expert consensus on the Nanjing Consciousness Recovery Scale (CNCRS) has been officially published in the Chinese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine. , marking a significant leap in China’s progress in this field—from clinical experience to standardized protocols—and holding substantial implications for the assessment and rehabilitation of disorders of consciousness.

The entire sub-forum was rich in content and meticulously structured, comprehensively presenting the complete logical chain of critical care rehabilitation—spanning timing, organizational models, management and prevention, to precision‑based interventions. As rehabilitation medicine moves toward… “Precision, Integration, and Human-Centricity” Today, such in-depth dialogue could not be more timely.

It reminds us that every dedicated effort in our field kindles a faint spark for lives long dormant; and that each convergence of wisdom ultimately paves the way for life to begin anew.

Looking ahead, Nanjing Zijin Hospital will join forces with all colleagues in the field of rehabilitation, using innovation as our oar and standardization as our sail, to continuously empower the profession and jointly propel the cause of rehabilitation medicine toward an even brighter and more promising future!