title: [Speech by the chairperson: roles and practices of university hospitals in regional cooperation].
abstract: A medical department has been established for each of the six prefectures constituting the Tohoku Region. In addition to their traditional roles in education, medical examination and treatment, and research, university hospitals play significant roles in community health care. In the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, in particular, many medical institutions were paralyzed, damaging the health of the general population, including evacuees, and putting many through emotional turmoil. The situation, including damage directly caused by the disaster, varied across localities, and medical institutions engaged in vastly different activities depended on the manpower available in their laboratory medicine (test) departments, specializations of doctors and technicians, and available resources. The disaster caused serious problems such as infectious diseases, regional infection control, economy class syndrome experienced by residents in temporary housing, and radiation exposure in Fukushima Prefecture. Here, each speaker will present how the laboratory medicine department of his/her university has established regional cooperation, and we will discuss their achievements and issues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection Control, Fukushima Medical University, Fukushima 960-1295, Japan. kane2@fmu.ac.jp
authors.forename: Keiji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanemitsu
mesh_terms: D004190:Disasters; D055866:Earthquakes; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods; D007564:Japan; D010348:Patient Care Team