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| Message from
President of Fukushima Medical University |
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Fukushima Medical University, a prefecture university, has two departments, School of Medicine established in 1947 and School of Nursing established in 1998. Fukushima Prefecture, the 3rd largest prefecture in Japan, has a population of 2.1 million, distributed almost evenly in cities, mountain villages, farming villages and fishing villages. It is located at the entrance of Tohoku district and close to Metropolitan Tokyo, which makes cultural exchanges with neighboring areas easy and successful.
The aim of Fukushima Medical University is to promote, through the highly advanced level of medical and nursing research of the faculty members, the welfare of the population of the prefecture and to educate doctors and nurses to work for medical and welfare organizations in the prefecture after graduation.
The University has some unique research programs. One of them is to investigate how the naturally rich environmental factors of the prefecture such as clean air and pristine water influence people mentally and physically and to apply the achievements of the investigation to the prevention and treatment of diseases. The University also investigates what causes diseases peculiar to the prefecture, what treatments are needed, and how to care for patients with those diseases.
In order to realize our University's aims, namely, the mastery and practice of the patient-centered medicine and nursing, students and residents are recommended to practice medicine or nursing at medical facilities in remote areas in addition to taking lectures at the University and practicing at the University Hospital.
Fukushima Medical University includes the Graduate School of Medicine (doctoral program) and the Graduate School of Nursing (master's program) besides undergraduate schools of medicine and nursing. Both graduate schools promote forefront research and education in medical and nursing sciences, as well as provide programs of recurrent education for physicians and nurses working in the community. The Medical Training Center was established to train them to be effective leaders of medical services in the community.
The Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Fukushima Medical University Hospital
are attached to the School of Medicine. The Institute of Biomedical Sciences
consists of three departments, which are organized to investigate signal
transduction in living bodies at the levels of genes and proteins, cells
and organs, and individual living bodies. The excellent faculty at the
institute, with modern facilities and technologies, are pursuing active
research in various fields of molecular biology, micro-morphology, cellular
biology, genetic pathology with emphasis on transgenic animals and so on.
The results of their research have been published widely in international
journals and conferences, and have attracted attention of researchers around
the world.
The University Hospital is not only orientated toward educating both medical students and nursing students, but also serves as a training center for medical/nurse practitioners. The University Hospital, which is a "special functioning hospital" with highly advanced medical technologies, has a commitment to provide the best possible medical care in the prefecture. It has 778 beds and every day 1,700 patients visit the out-patient clinics. The hospital also functions as a tertiary medical care institution (emergency medical service center) to handle the most severe cases.
The University, its affiliated institute and hospital endeavor not only to carry out pioneering research that has gained worldwide recognition, but also to practice patient-oriented medicine with the highest ethical standards. Its ultimate goal is to fulfill its function of research and education for the local as well as international community. In this way the University is developing as a world-class health care institution where doctors, nurses and other medical staff work in full cooperation to improve the quality of life for those who receive its medical services.
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Shin-ichi Kikuchi, MD, PhD
President , Fukushima Medical University |
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