Source: SYSU-JHU Collaboration Program
Written by: Chen Jingxue
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On May 9-13, 2015, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) delegation visited Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) again for a 5-day local training program. In addition to the educational training, representatives on both sides also held extensive interviews and meetings in preparation for the building of International Clinical and Translational Research Center (ICTR) in the future collaboration.

The local training program kicked off on May 9th at Wing Seng Building on North Campus. Similar to last year’s training courses, the local training program includes both regular courses and short-term courses. Regular courses are two main courses for the training program: Clinical Investigator Course and Clinical Coordinator Course. Consistent with the tradition, the two main courses were conducted on the basis of antecedent online courses. Only students who excelled in the online course can be selected to enter the regular courses. While for the short-term courses, JHU faculty members not only taught the Advanced Principal Investigator Course, but also brought two new courses: Bioinformatics Course and Curriculum Development Course, in the hope of improving SYSU’s clinical research comprehensively. Moreover, in order to improve the local training program, a course feedback meeting was particularly arranged to collect previous students’ comments on this local training program. 

During the five days’ visit, representatives from both universities conducted interviews and meetings in preparation for the building of International Clinical and Translational Research Center (ICTR) in the SYSU-JHU Collaboration Phase II. Discussion issues included IRB development, research cooperation and the education of clinical research, etc.

At the lunch meetings on May 9th and 10th, three previous visiting scholars of SYSU-JHU Collaboration simulated classroom teaching in English to JHU faculty members in order to exchange teaching skills with American peers. It is hoped that such type of knowledge exchange can cultivate a number of excellent internationalized teachers for the ICTR center in the future.

The two sides held a meeting to discuss the plans of future collaboration in Phase II. Moreover, in order to spread the concept of the importance of ICTR, Professor Adrian Dobs of JHU delivered a small talk to representatives from SYSU’s affiliated hospitals about the ICTR building in JHU. SYSU Vice Presidents Professor Mengfeng Li and Professor Minghai Wei attended the seminar.

The closing ceremony of SYSU-JHU Collaboration Phase I was also held. Both universities recalled the efficient cooperation in the past two years and expressed good wishes for future collaborations.

In addition, the SYSU Clinical Research Salon invited Professor Nae-Yuh Wang from JHU to give a sharing talk on the last night of the delegation’s visit. SYSU Clinical Research Salon is an academic group founded by previous visiting scholars in JHU of the SYSU-JHU Collaboration Program. As the fifth round of the salon, this month’s academic salon attracted more than 100 faculty and students.

Through the five-day visit of JHU delegation, both universities have improved their understandings of each other. A large number of university faculty members as well as students have benefited from local training courses and other activities brought by JHU. Currently, both universities are working on the collaboration of Phase II for a deeper cooperation in aspects such as clinical research and education.