College of Public Health attracts major research funding

Source: College of Public Health

Published on 2018-10-24

The College of Public Health recently received several research grants over NT$10 million in value. 


1. Program for Cooperation and Strategy Evaluation in Epidemic Prevention

This project was entrusted to the TMU team by the Centers for Disease Control. The team, led by Dean of Public Health Nai-Wen Kuo, gives TMU the role of a think tank promoting global health and safety issues. It also helps the country in terms of preventing infectious diseases and other similar threats.

2. Adolescent Health Behavior Study and Follow-up

This project is led by the director of the master’s degree program in Applied Molecular Epidemiology, Prof. Hung-Yi Chiou, and funded by the Health Promotion Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The study seeks to establish long-term follow-up data that is representative of the country’s adolescent health behaviors, and through PPS stratified random sampling to record over 18,000 national representative samples. Health behaviors will be observed from middle school to adulthood, covering important stages during changes in the education system.

This project is complicated by its very long-term nature, as subjects will leave the original education system. So a large-scale internet-based questionnaire tool will use diverse follow-up investigative methods that have been modified to improve effectiveness and completion rates. Results from the data analysis as well as opinions on the policy implications will be provided to the government for reference when planning adolescent programs that can be extended into adulthood and further used for a translational summary of chronic diseases.

3. Air Rescue Audit Mechanism

This is a long-term project of the Health Promotion Administration, and has been based on the research of Prof. Shin-Han Tsai at the Graduate Institute of Injury Prevention and Control since 2002. A lack of medical resources on Taiwan’s outlying islands and in remote areas has led to development of a management process and standard operating protocol for air ambulance helicopters. A specialist physician reviews air rescue efforts to provide the correct medical treatments while reducing wasted resources.

An audio-visual system for remote medical consultations also has been established. Thirty all-weather remote systems have been set up in remote health centers and emergency rooms to be used when assessing referral and flight safety criteria. Patients who do not require referral will be monitored and followed up using video consultations.

Specialist physicians staff this national search and rescue command center around the clock to coordinate flight safety and ensure patients reach the most suitable hospital. More than five thousand cases of air referrals have saved over NT$1.38 billion that has been used for construction of medical facilities on outlying islands.