The returning tide: how China, the world's most populous country, is building a competitive research base

When China turned its back on the Cultural Revolution, it aimed to build a thriving capitalist sector. It got one. Now, it wants a world-class research enterprise. How far has it progressed in the biosciences, how did it get there, and how far does it have to go?

Transdisciplinary assignments in graduate health education as a model for future collaboration

Transdisciplinary health care continues to be at the forefront of patient treatment in the medical arena, in part due to escalating health care costs, an increasing aging population, and the development of multiple chronic diseases. Gaining the knowledge, experience, and principles associated with transdisciplinary teamwork to successfully prepare for modern-day practice is therefore essential for individuals of various health care professions. This report describes an assignment developed and implemented to facilitate professional interaction between graduate physical therapy, nutrition, and nursing students. The objectives of this assignment were to determine through student evaluation the effects of a transdisciplinary experience on students' understanding of the role of another discipline and students' communication skills across disciplines. When evaluating the assignment, students most often remarked that they developed a greater understanding of the roles of the included disciplines and reported a significant increase in communication skills. However, some students did not concur that this assignment was effective due to the scheduling conflicts and lack of teamwork that can occur during a collaborative project. The students' reports of their experiences in completing the assignment provide valuable insights for implementing and/or updating a preparatory transdisciplinary education component in other settings. Additional research can focus on the challenges faced by the majority of the students venturing into actual health care or "real-world" settings for comparative studies.

The status of national and health administration doctoral education: issues for the 21st century

Doctoral education is gaining increasing attention as new programs proliferate and enrollment grows. Presently there is no standardization of degrees programs, limited aggregated information about health administration education doctoral programs, and an absence of national policy. The general, doctoral education literature presents a variety of issues and challenges for doctoral health administration education including data trends, supply and demand for doctoral graduates, credential inflation, attrition and degree completion, organizational efforts to improve doctoral education, and strategies for the future. Following the literature review, survey results for a sub-sample of AUPHA affiliated doctoral programs are presented along with related implications.

A contextual and logical analysis of the clinical doctorate for health practitioners: dilemma, delusion, or de facto?

Growth of the number of practice or clinical doctorates in allied health and nursing is examined from several different points of view. These perspectives are first discussed contextually and then organized according to the dilemmas we face, the delusions we need to address, and the de facto reality we need to acknowledge. The article concludes with an overview of internal and external review practices and interprofessional considerations.

Interdisciplinary innovations in biomedical and health informatics graduate education

OBJECTIVES

Biomedical and health informatics (BHI) is a rapidly growing domain that relies on the active collaboration with diverse disciplines and professions. Educational initiatives in BHI need to prepare students with skills and competencies that will allow them to function within and even facilitate interdisciplinary teams (IDT). This paper describes an interdisciplinary educational approach introduced into a BHI graduate curriculum that aims to prepare informatics researchers to lead IDT research.

METHODS

A case study of the "gerontechnology" research track is presented which highlights how the curriculum fosters collaboration with and understanding of the disciplines of Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science, and Health Administration. Gerontechnology is a new interdisciplinary field that focuses on the use of technology to support aging. Its aim is to explore innovative ways to use information technology and develop systems that support independency and increase quality of life for senior citizens. As a result of a large research group that explores "smart home" technologies and the use of information technology, we integrated this new domain into the curriculum providing a platform for computer scientists, engineers, nurses and physicians to explore challenges and opportunities with our informatics students and faculty.

RESULTS

The interdisciplinary educational model provides an opportunity for health informatics students to acquire the skills for communication and collaboration with other disciplines. Numerous graduate and postgraduate students have already participated in this initiative. The evaluation model of this approach is presented.

CONCLUSION

Interdisciplinary educational models are required for health informatics graduate education. Such models need to be innovative and reflect the needs and trends in the domains of health care and information technology.

All aboard for graduate school

Graduate school can be an intimidating journey to undertake. Luckily, there are plenty of sources of advice to help you on the way.

Challenges for chemoinformatics education in drug discovery

Chemoinformatics is rapidly becoming a core part of drug design informatics, yet the educational opportunities in the field are currently limited. This article reviews the academic and commercial educational programs that are available in chemoinformatics, considers the current challenges and takes a look at emerging trends, such as distance education and intensive short courses.

Minority students of color and the psychology graduate pipeline: disquieting and encouraging trends, 1989-2003

Trends since 1989 in the minority graduate pipeline in psychology are examined, with special focus on trends in recent years. Encouraging trends generally outweigh troubling ones at lower levels of the pipeline. However, in recent years disquieting trends dominate at the higher pipeline levels. Promising trends include a rise in the percentage (to nearly 25%) of minority psychology students receiving the bachelor's degree and a rise to more than 20% receiving the master's degree. Troubling trends include the stalling of growth in minority PhD degree receipt since 1999 and the lack of growth in the percentage of African American and Hispanic/Latino(a) students entering PhD departments. Given the mixed findings, one of the highest priorities for psychology must be continued and persistent efforts to develop practices and policies that enhance recruitment, high levels of achievement, and degree receipt for students of color.

[The teaching of the biology of ageing in France 1990-2005: DEA with the course of speciality of Master Seeks]

In 1990, following an idea arising from an Inserm study section on aging, the Diplôme d'études approfondies (DEA) de Biologie du vieillissement was created. Since then, more than 300 students have followed these courses which cover the cellular mechanisms of aging and associated diseases, from basic causes of aging to CNS and sensory organs aging, as well as nutritional aspects, sarcopenia and osteoporosis, vascular and neuroendocrine aging. More than 150 thesis have been defended and more than a quarter of students has been recruited on permanent positions in French universities and research institutions (10 %) and hospitals (16 %). Since its creation, one of the particularities of the DEA was the formal links between academia and industry since teaching takes place on private laboratory settings.

[Educational system for medical sciences at the University of Tsukuba--with special reference to medical technology]

Three-year colleges for nursing, medical technology, and so on, have all been reorganized into four-year educational institutions in national universities. Since the reform, universities are not responsible for educating medical scientists except nurses. The new College of Nursing and Medical Technology in the University of Tsukuba has been developed along these lines. Here introduce some of its attempts and provide an opportunity to a better system. The Department has the following three characteristics: 1. Medical scientists are educated in the new Department, and the Department is closely cooperating with the School of Medicine. 2. There are courses for medical researchers concerning Molecular Pathology, Pathological Engineering and Environmental Pathology. 3. The qualification to apply to a national test for medical technologists is given to the students. Unfortunately, the system is not fully understood by the faculty or the students and does not work well because the Medical Technology Department and the Nursing Department are grouped together as a single institution. Moreover, this flaw in the system prevents the Medical Technology Department from actively promoting highly advanced medical sciences, such as organ transplantation, artificial organs, gene therapy, reproductive medicines, and so forth (Fig. 1). Few specialists exist who can bridge achievements in basic or advanced sciences and clinical application. Serious social problems about food safety, care systems, post-genome medicine, the youth, and so on, have to be dealt with, too. We are thus planning to separate the Department as the College of Medical Science (Fig. 2) and link it to the educational system in the master's and doctoral programs (Fig. 3). This model will successfully educate a new type of medical specialists.

Curriculum development and technology incorporation in teaching neuroscience to graduate students in a medical school environment

Today's neuroscience faculty member wears multiple hats and requires diverse skills to succeed in the competitive environment in which they find themselves. A common refrain from graduates is that there is a need for better training in the diverse, multiple skills that they will need to succeed in obtaining a faculty position and excelling in that position once it is obtained. Our university recently developed a new neuroscience graduate program that allowed us to create a curriculum and core courses de novo and that could be tailored to provide training in diverse skills used by everyday neuroscience faculty members. The current article details our rationale, design, and implementation of this new curriculum and its two major core courses. The genesis of the new curriculum also provided an opportune time to introduce and test new teaching technology in the two neuroscience core courses. The technology incorporated included on-line WebCT course sites, computer performance system, and the Tegrity system. Herein, we elaborate on our experiences with the use of this technology in the small class graduate course setting and provide insight on student feedback on the perceived effectiveness of the technology. The mechanisms and considerations that are needed for incorporation of such technology are also discussed. While no single curriculum or technology incorporation scheme will be applicable to all programs, it is hoped that our experiences in curriculum design and technology incorporation will be beneficial to other universities as they consider refining existing programs or beginning new ones.

[Promotion of the systematization of consistent education for medical technologists]

Although only about 35 years have passed since the birth of medical technology, marked advances have been made in the clinical laboratory science field. However, the educational system for technologists attached importance only to the learning of techniques for a long period because special training schools primarily provided medical technologist education. With the passing of time, the need for advanced knowledge has increased, and a plan to change the education system for medical technologists to 4-year colleges was evaluated. In 1989, the Course of Laboratory Sciences as a 4-year system for medical technologist education was established in the Department of Medicine, Tokyo Medical & Dental University. The Doctoral Course of Graduate School (first term) was established in 1993 and the Doctoral Course of Graduate School(second term) in 1995. In 2001, these courses formed a graduate university as the Division of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences, the Graduate School of Allied Health Sciences. Thus, a consistent educational system for medical technologists was established. By March 2005, about 500 students had graduated from this division. Based on this experience, we produced a 4-stage developmental program and provide an advanced educational system for the promotion of the systematization of consistent medical technologist education.

Clinical training for the next millennium

Several issues regarding the matrix model (C.R. Snyder & T.R. Elliott, this issue, pp. 1033-1054) are addressed. First is the role that positive psychology can play in therapy and prevention training. Next, assumptions of the medical model are discussed concerning training students to be competent therapists in an era of managed care. Finally, questions are raised about the response of training programs to the integration of psychology with biobehavioral approaches to human behavior.