The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University was established in 1960. It has developed into a comprehensive Class A tertiary hospital that integrates medical care, teaching, research, rehabilitation, health maintenance, disease prevention, and emergency services.

Organ transplantation is one of the hospital's hallmark specialties. It is among the few institutions in China authorized to perform five types of organ transplants: heart, liver, kidney, lung, and pancreas. The hospital has successfully conducted combined heart-kidney, liver-kidney, and heart-lung transplants, as well as pediatric liver, testicular, and corneal transplants. Several liver transplant cases have been completed with zero intraoperative and postoperative blood transfusion. Both the quantity and quality of transplants rank among the highest nationwide.

The hospital has been actively promoting the development of minimally invasive and interventional techniques. Laparoscopes, thoracoscopes, and hysteroscopes have been widely used for many years. Due to their advantages of minimal trauma and rapid recovery, minimally invasive techniques have been widely adopted by surgeons across many departments. Interventional procedures for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and large vascular diseases rank among the most advanced in the province. A number of new technologies, such as sleeve gastrectomy for weight loss, are performed with the assistance of the da Vinci robotic surgical system. Transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEM), brain surgery assisted by the ROSA surgical robot, and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) are also well-known nationwide.