Translational medicine is a totally new concept which could basically eliminate the barrier between basic medicine and clinical medicine and shorten the process of‘bench to bedside’Throughout the history of the diagnosis and treatment of acute pancreatitis,we found that changes of treatment concept at each historical stage were the results of‘translational medicine’under the technical and cognitive condition at that time.This paper elaborated on the important role of translational medicine based on the diagnosing and treating development of acute pancreatitis as well as discussed the medical teaching and research under the mode of translational medicine.