UH Mānoa Office of Public Health hosts UH-Fudan University Public Health Summit

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Dan Meisenzahl, (808) 348-4936
Director, Media Production, UH System
Diane Chang, (808) 956-0391
Director of Communications, Chancellor's Office
Posted: Sep 29, 2016

UH President David Lassner gives welcome remarks at the UH-Fudan Public Health Summit.
UH President David Lassner gives welcome remarks at the UH-Fudan Public Health Summit.
Dr. Skip Burkle, Senior Fellow with Harvard's Humanitarian Initiative, addresses summit attendees.
Dr. Skip Burkle, Senior Fellow with Harvard's Humanitarian Initiative, addresses summit attendees.

The UHM Office of Public Health Studies (OPHS) hosted a UH-Fudan Public Health Summit from September 26-28, 2016. Eight faculty members from Fudan University and Wuhan University in China — including Wen Chen, dean of the Fudan School of Public Health — attended the summit at East-West Center’s Jefferson Hall.

UH President David Lassner, School of Social Work Dean Noreen Mokuau and OPHS Director Kathryn Braun gave opening remarks, emphasizing the value of and their support for international exchange and collaborations. More than 50 UH faculty and students attended the summit.

The summit’s main purpose was to highlight and promote academic exchange and research between UH Mānoa and China. Summit speakers shared views on health policy and reform, aging, environmental degradation and global health challenges — all important areas of public health.

During the summit, UH Mānoa signed an agreement with Fudan University for 2016-2021. The agreement renews the decade-long collaboration between the OPHS and Fudan University School of Public Health. The UH-Fudan agreement formalizes a BS/MS fast track program, also called the 4+1+1 Program.  Students who pursue and successfully earn bachelor degrees at Fudan in preventive medicine study may then pursue a fast-track master’s degree in public health at UH Mānoa.

“The successful 10-year relationship between UH Mānoa and Fudan University in public health is testament to the evolving need for international partnerships on global health,” stated Dean Mokuau.

Added Dean of Graduate Education Krystyna Aune, “Fudan University has a strong worldwide reputation for its research, teaching and caliber of students.  The Public Health 4+1+1 Program will further strengthen the partnership between UHM and Fudan, and attract stellar students to pursue graduate education here.”

OPHS pioneered such fast-track degree programs at UH Mānoa, with its first agreement with Wuhan University in 2008. To date, OPHS has developed such agreements with four universities in China — Wuhan, Fudan, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Nanchang.  OPHS also has agreements in place with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), the University of Tokyo, Korea University and Catholic University of Korea.

“More than 125 Chinese students and faculty have visited UH, and more than 80 UH students and faculty have visited China. They all have benefited from this international exchange program by developing research credentials and experience,” said Dr. Yuanan Lu, the professor who has led OPHS since 2007. “The objective of our UH-China program is to enhance public health education globally and to promote international cooperation with China, the most populated country in the world.”

Over the past ten years, OPHS has worked with four leading schools of public health in China, including Fudan and Wuhan universities. Beside student and faculty exchange, research collaborations between OPHS and China have resulted in more than 50 peer-reviewed publications in environmental health, social and behavioral health, health policy and management, and epidemiology.

To further strengthen the UHM-China partnership, OPHS has established the China-Hawaii Public Health Exchange Fund at the UH Foundation. To donate, see https://giving.uhfoundation.org/ and search for account 12748304, or contact Dr. Yuanan Lu at (808) 956-2702 or yuanan@hawaii.edu.

(Full caption info)

(Top photo) UH President David Lassner gives welcome remarks at the UH-Fudan Public Health Summit on September 26, 2016, in Jefferson Hall.

(Bottom photo) Dr. Skip Burkle, who is Senior Fellow with Harvard University’s Humanitarian Initiative, speaks on global health at the UH-Fudan Public Health Summit on September 26, 2016, in Jefferson Hall.

For more information, visit: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/publichealth/