Department

The Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health of Tianjin Medical University was founded in 1998. It was created through a merger of the department of Child and Adolescent Health founded in 1978 and the department of Maternal and Child Health Care founded in 1994.


In this department there are 6 teachers, among them, 1 is a professor and the other 5 are lecturers. 4 of the 6 teachers in this department have PhD degrees with a mean age of 37.7.


Prof. Xin Zhang, the dean of the department, is a PhD supervisor as well as being honored as “The Famous Teacher in  Tianjin Medical University”. She also undertook the following positions: (1) Member of standing committee of The Child and Adolescent Health Section of CPMA ( Chinese Preventive Medicine Association); (2) Member of council of Tianjin Preventive Medicine Association; (3) Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Section of Tianjin Preventive Medicine Association; (4) Editorial member of Chinese Journal of School Health; (5) Member of Expert Committee of examination by letter of National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC).


She is also the Principal Investigator of 4 Teaching Perform Projects (Three of which are provincial and ministerial level) and 7 Research topics (one is NSFC), She has finished one project supported by NSFC and one supported by Project Foundation of Tianjin Municipal Science Committee, and accomplished the 3rd prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Tianjin and got the corresponding software copyright. There is one project in research supported by NSFC, and one project in research supported by Ministry of Public Health China. Prof. Xin Zhang is also chief editor of 2 textbooks. She jointly compiles one of the national 15th plan textbook, chiefly compiles 3 teaching materials. She has published one monograph and more than 20 scientific articles (including SCI).


One of our main research directions is the etiology of autism. We have a research project underway funded by the National Natural Science Foundation (NNSF) and we have already finished a NNSF project and a Tianjin Committee of Science and Technology project related to this field. Through this research, we have received a Third Prize from the Science and Technology Progress Awards of Tianjin City as well as a software copyright. Our other main research direction is physical and mental health among students. We have an industry-specific research project for the Ministry of Health underway based on this topic. To improve the development of the department, we have carried out a number of academic exchanges with foreign universities.


Currently, we teach 6 compulsory courses for undergraduate students including Child and Adolescent Health, 4 elective courses open to all graduate and postgraduate students and 2 courses for foreign students. In the past 5 years, 5 master students have graduated and we have supervised 42 undergraduates in their internships. Currently, 2 PhD students and 5 master students are studying in our department. In addition, we hold annual training for primary school and middle school physicians. Until now, about 1840 school physicians have been trained.


Under the leadership of Prof. Xin Zhang and with the joint efforts of the team members, the department has achieved rapid development:
    In 2009, the course of Child and Adolescent Health won “The Excellent Course of Tianjin”
   We chief-edited 6 textbooks and joined in the writing of 6 textbooks, among them, Child and Adolescent Health (case version) which has been assigned as the teaching textbook for the undergraduate students;
    We presided over 4 teaching reform projects and published 8 teaching thesis;
    1 teacher was honored as “The Famous Teacher in Tianjin Medical University”;
    2 teachers won first prize in “The Basic Teaching Skills Competition in Tianjin Medical University”;
  2 teachers were honored as “Excellent Teacher of Tianjin Medical University” and 1 teacher was honored as “Excellent Teacher of the Public Health School”;
   1 young teacher is supported by “Outstanding Young Teacher Funding Scheme” and 1 young teacher is a PhD student jointly trained by Tianjin Medical University and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands;
   5 students supervised by our department won the “Outstanding Thesis Award of the Public Health School” and 2 students received first prize in “the Challenge Cup of University Students’ Thesis Contest of Tianjin Medical University”.  
    There is one project in research supported by NSFC, and one project in research supported by Ministry of Public Health China.
    Prof. Xin Zhang has finished one project supported by NSFC and one supported by Project Foundation of Tianjin Municipal Science Committee, and accomplished the 3rd prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Tianjin and got the corresponding software copyright.