Harbin Medical University was founded in 1926 and features a glorious history and tradition. It originated from the combination of former Harbin Medical University (its predecessor being Harbin Special Medical School founded by Dr. Wu Liande, a medical pioneer in China) and former 1st and 2nd branch schools of China Medical University in Xingshan (its predecessor being China Red Army Health School founded in Ruijin, Jiangxi, in 1931). During the 80 years, HMU has inherited Dr. Wu Liande’s spirit “loving the motherland wholeheartedly and succeeding by self-made efforts”, carried forward China Red Army Health School’s tradition “firm political belief and excellent medical skills”, and upheld the motto “integrity from the rules and learning to promote medicine”. HMU’s strength has been increasing and become a medical school of huge capacity and distinct characteristics. HMU has now been one of the top medical schools in China. It is now a national base for basic sciences research and teaching talent development, and a key “Project 211” university in Heilongjiang Province.    
 
The affiliated institutions of HMU include: School of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Public Health, School of Pharmacy, School of Health Administration, Department of Bioinformatics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Graduate School, School of Adult Education (School of Continuing Education), five medical schools (affiliated hospitals), School of Dentistry, School of Nursing, and Daqing Campus. Organizations based in HMU include Center for Endemic Disease Control of CDC, National Research Center for Clinical Trial of New Drugs, Russian Language Training Center of the Ministry of Health, Heilongjiang Branch of China Medical Academy and Heilongjiang Provincial Medical Academy.

HMU has clearly defined medical programs. It is among the first group of medical universities running seven-year medical programs and has been working with Nankai University and Harbin Institute of Technology for joint teaching of seven-year program students. HMU cooperates with 5 foreign universities for joint medical programs. It has 4 first-grade doctorate degree programs including basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, public health and preventive medicine, and biology, 41 second-grade doctorate degree programs, and 49 second-grade master’s degree programs. There are 11 undergraduate programs including basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, preventive medicine, dentistry, anesthesiology, medical imaging, nursing, pharmacy, biotechnology, public affairs management and medical law. Now HMU has 5 postdoctoral research programs in preventive medicine, clinical medicine, basic medical sciences, biology and pharmacy, 1 research program in clinical pharmacy and pharmacology, and the postdoctoral research program collaborated between HMU and Zhonglong Enterprises. There are over 10,000 full-time students, among whom are over 3000 graduate students.

HMU has a reasonable discipline structure. There are 1 national key discipline, 32 provincial key disciplines, 1 incubation base of national key laboratories in biomedicine jointly established by the ministry and the province, 6 key laboratories of the ministry and the province, and 11 provincial key laboratories of higher education. Positions are available for national specially-invited professors and provincial specially-invited professors.

HMU has a number of excellent faculty members. There are now over 10,000 faculty and staff, with a well-structured combination of different ages. Of those is one academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and one Nightingale Prize winner. Over 70 faculty members have been granted various prizes such as Chinese Outstanding Young Teacher Award, Wu Jieping Medical Research Award, and Paul Jassen Award in Pharmacy.

HMU has made remarkable scientific achievements. Significant breakthroughs have been made in China Human Genome Project, cytogenetical research on solid tumor, basic and clinical research on series of spleen preservation operation, experiment and clinical application of homogeneous in situ heart transplantation, research on the best target of antiarrhythmic drugs and etiology of Kaschin-Beck disease. In order to make full use of HMU resources, HMU cooperates with some enterprises, e.g. the Pharmaceutical R&D Center between HMU and Harbin Pharmaceutical Group, to facilitate the transformation of pharmaceutical technology to new products and lead the pharmaceutical industry at the northeastern old industrial base to rapid development. Since 2000, HMU has been granted 3 second-class awards of National Scientific and Technological Progress, 3 second-class awards of National Natural Science, over 240 research achievement awards of the ministry and the province. HMU has undertaken over 250 projects of the national Project“973”, Project “863”, and key projects of National Natural Science Foundation.