Department of Medical Education and Research
Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital
Mission Statement
The Department of Medical Education and Research strives to continue its mission
as an academic center of excellence. Our mission includes service, teaching and
research.
Brief History
Welcome to the Department of Medical Education and Research.Our aims are to
promote high-quality medical research, both basically and clinically, and to
provide updated medical teaching and training. The department was founded in
November,1990. The founding director of the department was Prof. Hung-Ting
Chiang, who was also the head of the Department of Medicine at that time. Then
Prof. Kwok-Kei Cheng (now our superintendent) and Prof. J-K Huang (now our
vice-superintendent) took over the directorship of the department therafter,
respectively. Our current director, Professor Huay-Ben
Pan, took over the helm since April 1994. In January 2003, the
department moved into the new five-story Medical Research Building. The building
consists of a conference room on the top floor, 8 well-equipped special
laboratories, 12 common instrumental rooms, and a large research laboratory for
the researching clinicians.
Present Status：Medical Education
Other important arms of our department include a Medical Education Unit and a
Medical Library. The former is responsible for coordination of clinical training
course for medical students and fellows whereas the latter provides services in
the provision of medical books and journals, video/audio tapes and briefings
materials to hospital personnel. This hospital accepts undergraduate and
postgraduate medical students from various organizations and in various fields.
Hence our department organize various training programs, seminars as well as
on-the-job training for internal and external personnel.
We have an "Advisor-Responsibility System" for Interns. Recent
addition to the department include the Division of Medical Research which is
chaired by Dr.
Hing-Chung Lam from the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Dr. Lam's
main jobs are to boost the interaction between basic scientists and clinical
researchers in one hand, and help to set up an efficient and high-quality
teaching program on the other hand. Very recently he is also appointed to
in-charge of the "Postgraduate Year-one Medical Training Program
(PGY1)" of this hospital. The PGY1 program is a new national policy of the
Department of Health for the training of first year postgraduate doctors in
Taiwan.
Present Status：Medical Research
To enable advancement in medical technology, our hospital has been engaging in
improving research collaboration in "Basic Medicine" and
"Clinical Medicine" in recent years.
Our director is now charged with the responsibility of promoting the development
of medical research and teaching excellence in the hospital. So far we have
established 7 research laboratories, occupying the 2nd to 5th floor of the
Medical Research Building. These laboratories are: Cardiovascular
Laboratory, Neural
Structures and Functions Laboratory, Epidemiological
Laboratory, Cellular
Pharmacology Laboratory, Genetic
Engineering Laboratory, Tumor
Molecular Medicine Laboratory, and Cellular
Signaling Laboratory. The department also consists a new two-story Animal
Housing Facilities which was opened in 1995. Recently, the Cheng Deh-Ling
Medical Development Fund has been established to finance medical education and
research works. Over the years we have taken part in or have completed over
several hundreds of research projects.
A principal or an associate investigator with a Ph.D. degree heads each
laboratory . Most of our PIs are also adjunct professors of the closely
affiliated National Sun Yat-Sen University or other universities or colleges in
southern Taiwan. In the research laboratories M.S. and Ph.D. students constitute
a major portion of manpower in the laboratories. Other workers include permanent
technologists and research assistants supported by various funding agencies.
Most of the technologists and research assistants are B.S. or M.S. graduates.
The research activities of the department range from physiology, biochemistry,
immunology, endocrinology, neurology, epidemiology, molecular and cellular
biology and pharmacology. Although the major emphasis is on basic medical
researches, the investigators here also work closely with clinicians in the
fields of internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology,
psychiatry, dermatology, pediatrics, dentistry and many others on common
diseases in Taiwan.
Present Status：Medical Library
A modern computerized and digitized new Medical
Library was opened on 31st, October, 2003. It was located on the 6th floor
of the new Emergency Building. Up to March 2004 the library contains 13,158
medical books and magazines, 889 medical journals, and 1,813 audiovisual
materials which are of both oriental and western medicines and are available for
borrowing. Optical fiber network searches, WWW searches and interlibrary loan
services are also available. Besides, the library also contains 3,099 e-journals
and 592 e-books as well as 33 data base, of which 13 are our own.
Future Prospects
The efforts that have been put into the development of the department in the
past decade have laid a sound foundation for further growth and development. We
are now focusing more than ever on the merging and clinical research projects
and interdisciplinary programs. A new 4-storied research building which is
located just besided the Medical Research Building is being planned. With our
research efforts in cardiovascular research and neural structures and functions
as well as in various aspects of molecular medicine such as gene therapy and
tumor molecular medicine, we are now in an excellent position to face new
challenges in our march into the new millenium.
Contact Information
Department of Medical Education and Research
Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital
386, Ta-Chung First Road
Kaohsiung, Taiwan 813
Republic of China
Office Telephone：(886)-7-342-2121 ext 1518
Office Fax：(886)-7-346-8056
Email address：gabbrile@isca.vghks.gov.tw
Department
of Medical Education and Research