Southern Medical University, formerly known as the First Military Medical University of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, was founded in 1951, was identified as a national key university in 1979, and was transferred to Guangdong Province in August 2004 and renamed Southern Medical University. The school is the only medical school among the first batch of 5 provincial high-level universities in Guangdong Province, the first batch of medical universities jointly established by "ministries and commissions" in the country, one of the first 8 universities in the country to open an eight-year clinical medicine major (master's degree and doctoral degree), and the first batch of pilot universities in the country for the education and training plan of excellent doctors and excellent doctors (traditional Chinese medicine).