Since 1993, the department has been the first to carry out thoracoscopic lung surgery in China, and the first to carry out large-scale single-aperture thoracoscopic surgery in the world. From 2004 to this year, the total number of thoracoscopic surgeries continued to increase. In 2018, the number of minimally invasive surgeries exceeded 14,000, and the current proportion of thoracoscopic surgeries was more than 94%. In recent years, the number of thoracoscopic surgeries and the number of single-port thoracoscopic surgeries ranked first in the country. In China, it was the first to perform complex minimally invasive surgical operations such as single-aperture thoracoscopic (VATS) lobectomy, simultaneous bilateral subxiphoid resection, simultaneous bilateral VATS lobectomy, single-aperture VATS segmental resection, VATS sleeve pneumonectomy, VATS total pneumonectomy and VATS double-sleeve pneumonectomy. "Experience in Pulmonary Surgery" was written into the authoritative textbooks of Thoracic Surgery "Shields' General Thoracic Surgery" and "SugarBaker's Adult Chest Surgery (third edition)". Participated in the development of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) consensus on single-aperture thoracoscopic lobectomy (the only one in China). Obtained a number of thoracoscopic device invention patents and technical improvements to reduce surgical costs; According to the current situation of thoracoscopic surgery in China, the quality control standard of thoracoscopic surgery in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital was first proposed, and a good social effect was achieved. 170 minimally invasive SCI papers were published, with a total impact factor score of 540, and the highest one was 26.36. The three core international journals of thoracic surgery, JTCVS, ATS and EJCTS, collected 29% of single-hole thoracoscope papers from our hospital, and 7.9% of thoracoscope related papers from our center. Obtained 30 thoracoscopic related topics, with project funds of 28.02 million yuan; He edited 6 monographs on minimally invasive content and 2 English monographs.

In recent years, the department has been frequently invited by foreign thoracic surgery associations to perform surgical demonstrations abroad and create international minimally invasive training courses for thoracic surgery, attracting 730 senior physicians from 82 countries/regions around the world (72% developed countries), and the president, department director and consultant doctors of the society account for 1/3 of the 15 foreign physicians for long-term training. At the same time, the department makes full use of Internet technology to realize the live broadcast of many surgeries to the world, which has won high attention and unanimous praise at home and abroad. The subdiscipline has won the second prize of China Medical Science and Technology Progress Award and the second Prize of Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Progress Award. At present, the department has completed a total of more than 30,000 cases of single-aperture thoracoscopic surgery and 2,500 cases of single-aperture thoracoscopic surgery under xiphoid process, accounting for more than 90% of the thoracoscopic surgery in the department, and the above data are in a leading position in China and the world.