ABSTRACT
In order to maintain and develop the overall advantages and distinguishing features of medicine in Shanghai, the citys health system implemented the program of constructing centers for clinical medicine. The program involved not only the optimization and integration of health resources in the whole city but also the structural readjustment and resources regrouping within the citys health system and each individual hospital. After more than two years construction, 33 centers for clinical medicine have been set up in the city, resulting in primary achievements in expertise improvement, effect of scale, and quality benefits. By analyzing the hardware and software construction process, it can be seen that the centers for clinical medicine have made primary achievements in such aspects as ideological construction, work efficiency, interdisciplinary cooperation, academic status enhancement, medical quality improvement, and reform in the system of personnel distribution.