Greetings from Department Chair, School of Health Sciences
SHIWAKU, Hitoshi
The Tohoku University School of Health Sciences offers three undergraduate major courses, Nursing, Radiological Technology, and Medical Technology, and the Graduate School of Health Sciences offers master’s and doctorate degrees. The history of the School of Health Sciences began in 1913 with the establishment of the Tohoku Imperial University Specialized Medical Department Annex Facility for the Training of Nurses.
After evolving through a variety of transformations, the School of Health Sciences was established in October 2003. The philosophy of the School of Health Sciences is to train medical professionals with a strong sense of humanity and ethics who are broadly educated, possess scientific knowledge and skill, and have to ability to make comprehensive decisions in a composed and exact manner to allow them to fulfill their social mission as a medical practitioner amidst continuous change in social conditions and the environment faced by the health sciences and medical fields.
Medical services in Japan have undergone remarkable development accompanying scientific progress and rapid changes in society. During this time the birthrate has decreased while society continues to age and increasingly more people are living with chronic illnesses and disabilities. These circumstances require focusing on the quality of life through integrated comprehensive medical care spanning from patient preventative care to health management rather than just patient medical treatment and care. Thus, quality of life is an important consideration today.
Needless to say, the organizational mission of a university is to utilize education and research to flexibly meet the needs of the times. To do this, I believe one of the missions of the School of Health Sciences is to develop people who possess the advanced knowledge and skill necessary to properly use advanced and complex medical technology as well as utilize their uniqueness and expertise to implement team medicine and team care in collaboration with other medical technology experts. Yet another of our missions is to foster people who will take a leading role in education, academics, and government to further advance medical technology and science.
What I would like most for students to do as they spend their time at university is to search for their personal mission and obtain the knowledge and skills to pursue it. Tohoku University provides a leading-edge environment and an excellent faculty of professors to open up possibilities for students and allow them to fulfill their missions. The extensive damage suffered by the Tohoku Region from the Great East Japan Earthquake has reaffirmed the importance of learning medical technology and sciences to bless the lives of others. While students are attending university, I would like them to continue asking themselves how they should spend their time here in Tohoku. It is my hope that you will continue to improve yourselves while in the Tohoku University School of Health Sciences and that you will also acquire the kindness and intellect that will allow you to become top leaders in your fields of specialization.